


Roommates

by br0oketrout



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF), Video Blogging & YouTube RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Boarding School, Highschool AU, M/M, school au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-25
Updated: 2014-05-13
Packaged: 2018-01-10 00:32:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 29,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1152674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/br0oketrout/pseuds/br0oketrout
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Phil Lester is the new student at a private, prestigious boarding school. His roommate is the infamous, hot, and rather hostile Dan Howell. This is going to be one interesting year.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Phil stared out the window of the car, too nervous to continue reading his book. The trees blurred into cleanly cut hedges, and Phil realized that he was almost at his new school.  _Oh my god_ , he thought.  _I'm actually here_. He quickly shoved the book he had been reading into his bag.

"Phil," his mum called. "We're here! Are you nervous? Are you excited?"

Nervous wouldn't even begin to describe how Phil felt. He was going to a new school for kids of the rich and famous. Phil's dad was the CEO of a major company and was often away, but Phil had a kind and loving family. They had decided that Phil needed a better education than the one that he was getting in his hometown, so he was sent to this boarding school. He was worried that he wouldn't fit in or make new friends because of his social status and his lack of intelligence when it came to being generally social.

"I'm really nervous, mum. But…I, uh…you can help me carry my bags, but don't stay too long." Phil didn't want to be seen as the dork that had his mum walking around with him everywhere.

"Are you sure, sweetie?"

"Yeah." Phil said hesitantly. He knew he was going to miss her, but wasn't sure if it would be a "cool" move to be with his mum for very long. Phil just wanted to fit in.

"Okay. I'm going to check you in, alright?"

"Alright."

Suddenly, Phil could see the grand, wrought iron gates that surrounded the school. It was ancient. The car drove through them and around a bend into a huge parking lot in front of the school. The sign above the doors read "Pickerton Academy". The building itself was enormous and old. It rose up high from the ground and sprawled over the perfectly cut green lawns surrounding the school. There were other buildings Phil saw, too. The walls of all of them were made of weathered gray stone. Phil was the most intimidated he had ever been by a building.

His mum parked the car as close to the school as she could, and she got out to help Phil with his bags, which were in the trunk of the car.

"Mum, I've got it," Phil grumbled, grabbing more bags than his pale arms could carry and fumbling with them before dropping them onto the ground.

"Oh, Phil. Let me help you!" His mum insisted, picking up bags from the ground. Phil blushed a light pink with embarrassment at his clumsiness, mumbling something about how he could carry them perfectly fine and didn't need help. He grabbed the majority of the bags from the ground so had more than his mum and stated off towards the school.

When Phil reached the doors to the building, he nervously shifted his weight, looked up at the height of it, and opened the doors with an air of false confidence. His mum walked in behind him as Phil looked around, exploring his surroundings. The room Phil stood in was quite large; it seemed to be a lounge of some sort. The floor was marble and was covered in furniture, such as chairs and couches. A grand chandelier hung from the ceiling. A fireplace stood in the corner of the room, but it was unlit because it was still a bit too hot for a fire. A desk stood off to the right side of the room with a short, pudgy, balding man behind it. When he heard the door close behind Phil, he looked up and motioned him to come over.

"Ah, another student! Welcome, welcome, to the Pickerton Academy! What is your name?" he asked, smiling warmly.

"Um, Phil. Phil Lester," Phil replied.

The man extended his hand towards Phil. Phil shook it and felt like the man was going to cut off his circulation.

"Ah, Phil! I'm Mister Arland. Now, how about we get you settled in, hm? What year are you in?"

"Ten."

"Good, good! Let's see…Phil Lester, year ten…." Mr. Arland muttered to himself, flipping through papers. "Ah! Here we go. Your room is in Building B, Room 221. Your roommate is Daniel Howell. Wonderful boy. He was here last year, so if you'd need anything, he'll know. I know his father. I'm sure the two of you will get along well! Now, can you find your room on you own, or would you like a tour guide?" Mr. Arland questioned.

Phil cut his mum off just as she was about to say something. "We're good. I can find it on my own, thanks."

Mr. Arland smiled at him. "Alright! Just ask anyone if you need help. Here is a map—you'll probably be needing it for your first few days of classes. You can always ask for another if you need one. You have the supplies that was mailed to you, yes?" Phil nodded. "Good. Well, Phil, I'm sure we'll be seeing each other soon! Good day!"

"Thanks," Phil mumbled quietly. His mum gave Mr. Arland a kind grin and walked off behind Phil.

"Oh my gosh, Phil! I'm so excited for you. I know that you don't exactly want to be here, but it's going to be a great experience for you," Phil's mum gushed.

Phil half smiled at her. She was right, he didn't want to be here. Phil wanted to be at home with his freedom and hours upon hours of alone time and computers and gaming systems. Now Phil had to share every day of his life with another human being. On the other hand, Phil was sort of looking forward to new classes, new teachers, and a fresh start. He had cut his hair into a fringe and dyed it black, which contrasted with his vibrant blue eyes. He liked the way it looked, despite his parents' complaints that his hair should be naturally coloured. As Phil made his way down to Building C, however, his nerves started to increase slightly. What if his roommate—Daniel Howell, apparently—wasn't nice? What if they didn't get along? What if he bullied Phil? Phil had had some unpleasant experiences in the past with bullies. Phil's mum walked behind him silently, not wanting to embarrass her son. Phil thanked her silently for this.

"Mum? Is this the room?" Phil asked suddenly, stopping abruptly.

The sign on the door said '221'. "It is," Phil's mum replied.

"Mum, you can leave now," Phil mumbled.

"Oh, alright. I'll write to you, ok? Have fun and be good." She gave him a hug before walking off.

Phil took a deep breath and knocking on the door. After waiting a few moments, he heard a groggy, muffled voice coming from inside the room.

"What?"

"I'm your new roommate. Can I come in?" Phil asked.

" _What_." The voice in the room sounded disappointed. "I thought you wouldn't be coming."

"Well, I'm here. And I'm coming in." Phil turned the knob on the door and opened it.

The room was incredibly clean and looked rather nice. There were two beds, two chairs, and two desks. A large window sat in the middle of the wall, showing the endless, perfectly manicured lawns of the outside. The most incredible sight, though, was Phil's roommate. He had an almost identical opposite haircut as Phil, except that it was brown. He had black earrings and wore black skinny jeans and a mostly black t-shirt. And he was  _hot_.

Phil was gay. He knew he was gay. However, no one else knew. He had no friends that he was willing to tell, and he didn't feel ready to let his parents know. Phil didn't know how he could spend an entire year surrounded by a boy the likes of Daniel. Phil would probably die of heartbreak. Why did all the cute boys have to be  _straight?_ Maybe Dan wasn't, but Phil didn't want to get his hopes up. 

"Um, hi," Phil said, clearing his throat and pushing his bags on to the floor on the side of the room that Dan hadn't taken.

"Hi," replied Daniel.

"So, uh, I'm Phil Lester. And you're Daniel…Howell?"

"Dan," Dan corrected haughtily. He glared at Phil nastily. "Listen. I did not want a roommate. I do not want  _you_  as a roommate. Don't talk to me, don't look at me. We'll get along if you follow my rules. You are not going to talk to me outside of this room. You aren't going to talk to me  _in_  this room. We are not going to be friends. We're going to exist in the same room but not in each other's lives. OK?"

Phil stared at Dan, slightly incredulous. Mr. Arland said that Dan Howell was nice? Liar.

"Ok," Phil squeaked. Damn it. He didn't mean to sound that pathetic and small, but there he goes, making a fool of himself.

Dan gave Phil the ultimate death glare and turned around, putting headphones on his ears and plugging them into his laptop. Within seconds, Dan seemed immersed in the internet, so Phil decided to unpack his things. He heaved the bags into his side of the room and unpacked his belongings, one by one. It felt sort of strange, unpacking, because now that he was taking things out of his bag, everything seemed very cement. Phil was actually at this school, he actually had a roommate, and he actually had a dorm. This was actually happening. He had been anticipating coming to this school for so long that it seemed surreal now that he was here. 

After Phil had put everything where he decided it should go, he wasn't quite sure what to do. Phil went about his side of the room and tidied up little things; putting away the sock that fell and tucking the covers into the bed. What was he to do next? Dan was still on his laptop. Phil decided to get his out too, put on headphones, and went on tumblr. He typed an email to his mum, telling her that he had settled in well, and pressed send.

Phil was bored. He had nothing to do. There was a computer in front of him, but it wasn't interesting. He honestly just really wanted to talk to Dan. It ticked Phil off that he was being such a twat and he decided that he was going to say something to Dan whether he liked it or not.

"So, Dan. Um…would you mind showing me around the school? I don't know where anything is," Phil sputtered quietly, immediately regretting speaking after he did.   

Dan froze, stopping what he was doing on the computer and pausing his music, and looked at Phil. "Excuse me?"

"Could you show me around the school? I don't know where anything is," Phil repeated, a bit nervously.

"No." Dan said shortly. "I won't. Use a map."

"Please?" Phil almost begged. He really did need someone to show him around or he was going to be lost when it came time for classes. He could use a map, but he always got mixed up when it came to reading them.

"There are maps. Don't you dare bother me again," Dan snarled.

"Could you  _please_  take a break from that and show me around. Then I won't bother you again," Phil bargained, unsure of himself.

Dan glared menacingly at Phil, causing him to shrink backwards involuntarily. "I said  _no_. I will  _not_  show you around. Figure it out on your own."

" _Dan_. You've been here before and I haven't. Will you just show me around a building or something? Please?" Phil pleaded.

Dan looked Phil dead in the eyes. "You know what—fine. I'll show you around. Fine."

Phil was admittedly a little intimidated by Dan because of his hotness and hostility, and being as shy as he was, had no idea how he had managed to get Dan to show him around. Phil put on some shoes and waited for Dan to do the same. While standing next to the door waiting for Dan, Phil bounced nervously on his toes. Dan shot him what seemed to be his signature death glare from the floor where he was putting his shoes on and Phil ceased his bouncing.

Dan stood up and scowled. "Alright. Let's go." He walked out of the room.

Phil hurried behind him. 


	2. Chapter 2

Dan walked briskly down the hallway, Phil trotting along behind him, trying to keep up. Dan whispered rapidly and mostly to himself about how he didn’t want to be here and he didn’t want to be with Phil. Phil felt a little bad for forcing Dan to take him out here, but Dan was being very irritating and stuck up, so Phil decided that he deserved it. He was also secretly hoping that Dan would warm up to him, but didn’t want to get his hopes up.

Suddenly, Dan headed straight out of the front door of the building.          

“Dan? Um, where are we going?” Phil shouted after him, running to catch up.

“You wanted a tour? You’re going to get a tour. We’re going to go _everywhere_. All the buildings. All the classrooms. This one doesn’t count because it’s just a dorm building. But we’re going to go _everywhere_ ,” Dan shouted sarcastically.

This worried Phil. “Um, Dan? You don’t have to. I mean, we don’t even—“ he was cut off.

“Oh, no. You wanted a tour. That’s what you’re getting,” Dan yelled, sounding a bit maniacal.

“It’s—really, Dan, you, um, don’t need to. I’m fine with just a small tour.”

“Well that’s just _too fucking bad_.” Phil was alarmed at Dan’s cursing. He rarely heard anyone curse, especially with the type of people he had been surrounded with all his life. Everyone was old, rich and snooty, therefore looked down upon using ‘foul language’.

“I—okay,” Phil sighed, giving up.

Dan lead him to a huge, ancient grey stone building. He opened the heavy door for himself, but let it shut on Phil, so he had to reopen it and rush after Dan. Phil wasn’t the most fit, so he was already getting out of breath from having to keep up with Dan’s unnaturally fast walking pace. Inside the building, stairs lead up to higher floors and the ceiling was incredibly far away. _How is this a high school?_ Thought Phil. _It should be a museum._ Phil was jerked out of his admiring by Dan’s voice, which echoed throughout the empty halls, amplifying it and making it sound richer and more melodious than Phil had previously realized.

“So this is building A. Most of the classes are in here. There’s also a cafeteria. The food’s weird a lot of the time so if you don’t know what it is, don’t eat it. There are two gyms and a pool over here, too.” Dan went off down the hall and Phil walked after him. He was lead to see the cafeteria, which reminded him faintly of the Great Hall from Harry Potter. After a turn, Phil saw the gyms and the door to the pool. “Gym isn’t optional for years nine and ten unless you want to try out for a sport which practices every day for an hour. There’s football and basketball and a swim team and other shit.”

Dan turned around and went to the main entrance of the building, then walked up the stairs to the second floor. Phil was considering asking him to slow down but was too afraid.

“This is floor two of building A. Here are some classrooms. 201 is here with Mrs. Warelson who teaches 10th year English. Over there in 202 is Mr. Adams. He does Advanced English for 10th . In 203—“

“Wait, hold on. I think I have Mr. Adams,” interjected Phil.

“Good for you,” Dan said, uncaring. “In 203—“

“Are you seriously going to tell me who’s in every room?” Phil questioned incredulously.

“Yeah, I am. In 203—“

“That’s a lot of rooms. You’re going to tell me who’s in _every one_? Do you even know who’s in every one?” Phil was getting more comfortable with Dan, although still intimidated.

“I know _everything_ about this school. Don’t test me, Phil. In room 203—“ Dan was cut off yet again.

“Everything? How and why?”

“WOULD YOU STOP INTERUPTING ME?!” Dan bellowed.

“Sorry,” Phil squeaked.

“ _Thank_ you,” Dan sighed exasperatedly. “In room 203, there’s Mrs. Clemens with Maths.”

Phil tuned Dan out, not really wanting to hear about every teacher in the school. He couldn’t help but wondering, though…when Dan had said that he knew everything about the school, what did he mean? He obviously didn’t know _everything_ about it, but why would he care enough to say that he did? This only could have been his second year in the school, so how could he know much about it? Phil shook his head. He was blowing that comment out of proportion.

“…And Mrs. Johnson’s in room 222 teaching 11th year Advanced English. Over there is room 223 and Ms. Roth teaches 11th year German,” Dan continued.

“Dan?”

“What, Phil?” Dan asked, uncaring.

“Can we go to the next floor? I don’t really need to know about teachers other than the ones that teach my grade.” Phil said quietly.

Dan rolled his eyes. “Fine.” He turned on his heel and walked past Phil to the staircase in his scarily fast pace. Phil trotted behind him as Dan walked too quickly up the newly cleaned and waxed staircase, four steps above Phil. Suddenly, just a few stairs from the top, his fast-moving feet slipped. Phil saw it in slow motion. Dan’s foot missed the next step, throwing him off balance. His other foot lost its position on the stair, and he fell. Phil didn’t have time to think. Dan was falling backwards, which would cause serious injury. Phil reached his arms out, catching Dan around the waist and back and pulling him in close for more stability. Dan’s eyes were widened in shock as he tried to regain his bearings. He realized that he was in Phil’s arms all of a sudden, and his eyes widened even more to the size of quarters before his breathing stopped for a second. He stood upright, pushing himself away from Phil. Phil blushed pink against his pale skin, realizing what he had done. _He had just held the hot and intimidating Dan Howell in his arms. He had saved Dan from possible death_. The two boys were now on separate sides of the staircase, avoiding each other’s glances. Dan’s arms were crossed and a light blush brushed across his cheeks as he looked at the ground. Phil bit his lip, shifting his weight between feet, and fumbled with his hands, then walked up the stairs. Dan followed him, mush slower this time.

Dan coughed loudly and unnecessarily. Phil glanced at Dan. “Um.” Phil started.

“Uh, so. Floor three. On this floor, um. Room 301. Mrs. Richards. She teaches Maths for 12th year. 302 is 12th year, and so’s 303…um, there’s not really any 10th year classes on this floor. Your classes are all probably going to be on the second floor or fifth floor. So, yeah,” Dan faltered, looking shaken from his experience.

“Ok. Thanks. I…actually I think I’ll go back to the room. If all my classes are in this building then I suppose I’ll be able to just use a map. Like if they’re all in one building then I’ll just use a map because I’m not _that_ bad at reading them,” Phil babbled. “Um, I’ll just…go.” Phil walked down the steps slowly and out the door, back into the dorm room, leaving Dan standing on floor three of building A wondering what just happened.

Phil rushed into his dorm room, closing the door behind him and flopping face down on the bed. _What just happened_? Dan fell down the stairs, and Phil had caught him. And now Dan was all flustered. Hostile, hot Dan was all flustered because Phil caught him! He was probably just embarrassed and thought it was weird and gay, Phil reminded himself. But he couldn’t help that little shred of hope that maybe, just maybe it was just a little something more.

Phil decided to stop his thinking and go on YouTube instead. He watched some videos to get his mind off of the events that had just happened, and it worked. When Phil checked the clock by his bedside, though, he realized that thirty minutes had passed since he had left Dan gaping on floor three. He still wasn’t back. What happened to him? Was he okay? Of course he was, Phil reminded himself. Dan seemed to know a lot about the school; he was probably just walking around. Doing what? Phil rolled his eyes at himself. Dan was perfectly okay, and probably hadn’t wanted to be around Phil. Phil couldn’t blame him for that. It had been an extremely awkward moment for both of them, and tough Dan was most likely  embarrassed for showing emotion. Phil’s theory was proved correct when a few minutes later, the door banged open, swinging and hitting the wall before Dan slammed it loud and hard enough that Phil was sure it should have broken.

“We are _never_ going back in public with each other. Do you hear me?” Dan yelled, towering over Phil, who was still lying on his bed. “Outside of this room, you do not know me. Do not fucking tell anyone that we’re roommates. _Don’t forget my rules_. I told you them earlier, and for some reason, I let you break them. That is not fucking happening again. Ever. Or you’re going to regret it,” Dan threatened, looking extremely angry.

“Okay,” Phil whispered, cringing, terrified of Dan, who was looming over him. Phil hadn’t realized it before, but Dan looked like he could really cause harm to Phil. And for _some reason_ , Dan happened to look really attractive right now. _Damn hormones_ , Phil thought.

“Remember that. We don’t know each other,” Dan reminded Phil, fuming.

“Okay,” Phil whimpered.

Dan stormed back over to his side of the room.

“You do not come over to my side of the room,” Dan stated matter-of-factly, glowering. “If anything of yours is over here, I will throw it out. If you are over here…well, you’re going to wish that you weren’t.” Dan walked over and moved the floor lamp over so it was in the middle of the room. “Do not pass this lamp.”

Phil nodded, terrified of Dan’s rage.

Dan gave Phil one last of his signature death glares before turning away and focusing only on his computer; headphones in, listening to music loud enough that Phil could faintly make out a My Chemical Romance song. Phil decided to go back to his video watching, but this time with headphones on. Dan had really taken this badly, hadn’t he? Phil was quite scared of Dan’s anger, and made a mental note to follow Dan’s instructions. Phil snuck a glance at Dan. Why did he have to be so good looking? He was angry and hated Phil, but for _some reason_ managed to be really hot at the same time. Being a horny, gay teenage boy rooming with an extremely attractive, probably straight boy was going to be irking. _This is going to be an interesting year_ , Phil thought.

Later that night, after what had probably been a few hours of constant internet browsing, blogging, and watching YouTube videos on Phil’s part, Dan got up and left the room, not looking at Phil. After waiting a couple of minutes for Dan to come back, Phil checked the clock, realizing that it was 6:45 and Dan had probably gone to the cafeteria to get dinner. Phil closed his laptop and checked his appearance in the mirror, brushing his hair with his fingers and smoothing his shirt out. He was probably going to be meeting people tonight, so he had to make a good first impression. Phil turned around and stood in front of the door, staring at it and gathering his confidence. Phil took a deep breath and opened it, walking down and out of room 221, building B, and into building A. There were other kids walking into it in groups or pairs, talking and laughing, but no one gave Phil a second glance. Phil walked down the hall, following the other students and walking into the huge room.

The cafeteria seemed less intimidating and smaller when filled with people. Phil looked around and spotted Dan. Dan looked up and made eye contact with Phil before looking away. Dan had a rather pretty girl wrapped around him, and another girl was practically sitting on him. There went Phil’s hopes that Dan liked guys. Whoosh, right down the drain. Dan seemed pretty popular, too; he was surrounded by people, both girls and boys. He paled a little bit more than he was normally but walked off to get some food.

After Phil had acquired some pizza and a bottle of water, he set off upon the task of finding a table to sit. It seemed like everybody already knew each other, and it wasn’t an exaggeration. Everybody seemed to be sitting in groups of at least five. _These people have probably known each other since they were little. Their parents are all probably business partners or something_ , Phil realized. After looking around, he noticed a two boys waving over to him. He speed-walked over gratefully and sat down in an empty seat. The boys weren’t extremely attractive; at least, not as stunning as Dan. Damn that boy.

“Hey! Are you new here?” One boy asked. He was rather good looking, with curly, brown hair and hazel eyes.

“Yeah,” Phil replied.

“What’s your name? I’m PJ Liguori,” the boy said.

“I’m Phil Lester.”

“Ah, cool! This is Chris. He’s my boyfriend.” PJ indicated a boy with straight, light brown hair and smiled as he looked at him.

“Hey,” Phil gave a little wave.

“So, where’re you from?” PJ asked.

“Rossendale. Uh, you?” Phil asked, not really sure of what to say due to his lack of social skills.

“Peterborough. So, how’re you liking it here so far? When’d you get in?” PJ fired.

“Late this morning. It’s…nice. And huge. I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to navigate this place,” Phil laughed.

“You’ll get used to it,” PJ grinned.

“Is your roommate in yet?” Chris asked.

“Um…yeah,” Phil said.

“Who is it?”

“It’s…um…Dan. Dan Howell,” Phil decided to answer. These boys didn’t seem like they would talk to Dan. Phil wouldn’t be breaking Dan’s stupid rules if Dan didn’t know.

PJ and Chris gasped, eyes wide.

“Dan _Howell_? _The_ Dan Howell? The hot one?” Chris quipped, and PJ elbowed him in the ribs. “Sorry,” Chris muttered. “Oh, _fuck_. I am so sorry for you, mate. A whole year with that twat? God. My sincerest apologies.”

“If you ever need to get away from him…ugh. You can always come to our room if you need,” offered PJ.

“Just knock first,” Chris winked, eliciting another elbow in the ribs and a light blush from PJ.

Phil laughed, his tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth. He already felt at home with these boys.

The rest of dinner went quite nicely. Phil laughed along with Chris and PJ, and the three of them made plans to meet up tomorrow at 7:00 for breakfast and go to their first class, which happened to have all of them. Phil admired Chris and PJ’s their relationship. They seemed to both really like each other. Chris would make sexual jokes and had the dirtiest mind, and PJ would laugh and then tell him, jokingly, to shut up. It was adorable, and Phil just wished that he could have a boyfriend like that. The best part was, though, that they didn’t treat Phil like a third wheel. Phil was just another member of their makeshift group.

Phil left after he was done dinner, leaving PJ and Chris alone (not that they minded) and went back up to his room, hoping to God that Dan wasn’t in there. Phil opened the door to the room, his eyes shut in desperate hope that Dan was still eating dinner with those _girls_. When he opened them, Dan was sitting on his bed, staring at Phil as he opened the door. Phil opened his mouth to say something to Dan, but Dan turned away before Phil had the chance to even utter a sound. Dan was giving Phil the silent treatment? Fine. It was better than getting yelled at.

Phil walked over to his bedside table to check the time on clock. It was 7:30. Dinner had gone by faster than Phil had realized. He must have really been having  a good time with Chris and PJ. He was really thankful to have made friends already, and had found out that he shared a few classes with them. Classes started tomorrow! He had nearly forgot about that. As for now, though, Phil decided to get into his PJs and crawl into bed to finish the book he had started in the car ride here, then go to bed early so he would be rested. Phil picked out a comfy shirt and sweatpants and put them on, feeling self-conscious with Dan in the room. He snuggled under the covers of his bed and opened the book, getting immersed in in within seconds.

Suddenly, Phil heard a rustling in the near silent room and looked up automatically. It was the wrong time to do that. Or, the perfect time. Dan was standing in the middle of his side of the room, topless and wearing only rather tight boxers that didn’t leave too much imagination. His skin was tanned and smooth. He had the most perfect collarbones. Dan’s ass was the most perfect had Phil had ever seen, and Phil just wanted to— _Don’t go there_ , Phil reprimanded himself. _That is not the right person to be thinking that about_.

“What are you looking at?” Dan asked Phil, who was ogling obviously.

“Nothing,” Phil said quickly, looking back at his book.

“Really? Because that’s not what it looked like.”

“I’m reading,” Phil insisted, not taking his gaze away from his book.

“Sure,” Dan grunted, going back to ignoring Phil.

Phil’s face turned a light pink, which was clearly visible against his ebony skin. Dan glanced at Phil out of the corner of his eye and noticed, but didn’t say anything. Soon, though, Phil had his nose in the book, engrossed in the fictional world he had been transported to. Without his notice, hours passed, and it was 11:00. Checking that ever useful bedside clock, Phil realized this and decided to go to bed. He looked over to where Dan was in his bed, sleeping. His beautiful face was contorted into a grimace, and his lips were moving as though he was saying something. He managed not to make a noise despite the discomfort he seemed to be in. Phil almost said something, but decided against it. He didn’t want to make Dan any angrier at him than he had to be.

Phil set an alarm for early  tomorrow morning and got up and turned off the lamp in the middle of the room. He nestled under the blankets of the bed and drifted off to sleep, mind wandering. Would he be able to find his classes alright tomorrow? Would he make more friends? How was Dan going to act tomorrow? Was Dan okay?  These thoughts dispersed as Phil was transported into a peaceful slumber, interrupted only once by a little whimper in the darkness that was not his own. 


	3. Chapter 3

Phil was awoken by the blaring screech of an alarm. He grumbled, rolling over, and hit his clock until it stopped beeping. Phil struggled to open his eyes and finally got up, noticing that Dan wasn’t in the room, and clumsily threw open drawers until he found the one containing his uniform. Now, Phil might not have had the best sense of style, but he knew for a fact that this uniform was not in any way stylish. It consisted of a navy blue blazer, a light blue polo shirt, khaki pants, and a red and blue striped tie. It was also mandatory to wear black, brown, or tan shoes and they could not be sneakers, which left Phil needing to go shopping before school had started. After pulling on the dreadful thing, Phil brushed his hair out and collected his backpack so he could head straight from breakfast to his first class with Chris and PJ. His hair was still too curly for his liking, so he headed into the bathroom with a straightening iron, hoping not to see anyone else in there. If anybody were to see him straightening his hair, it would probably result in teasing. Phil had had enough of that in his last school.

Upon entering the bathroom quietly, he noticed Dan was in there, but nobody else was. Dan was straightening his hair,too! Phil snuck back out silently and went to his room. He quickly plugged in his straightener and did his hair as fast as he could. Phil gathered his backpack and headed out before Dan could come back.

Phil walked out of the building briskly, not wanting to call attention to himself as he was nervous. He strode into the cafeteria and spotted Chris and PJ in the same spot they were in last night at dinner.

"Oi! Phil!" yelled Chris across the room.

Phil waved awkwardly, walking over and setting his backpack down on a seat, saving it. “I’ll be right back—I just need to get some food,” Phil explained. After going and getting some cereal and toast, he sat back down again at their table.

"How’s it going? You excited fr your first day here?" PJ asked.

"Ah…no!" Phil laughed.

"Aw, the first day back is always interesting," explained PJ.

"And our teacher—Mr. Adams, first period—is pretty hot," Chris added.

"I thought we were supposed to be in a  _relationship_?” PJ asked Chris dramatically.

"Oh, Peej. I love you," Chris grinned.

PJ grinned back at Chris.

"Hello! Earth to Chris and PJ!" Phil interjected, smiling. PJ and Chris shifted in their seats, exchanging a glance. "What?" Phil asked, confused. What was that look for?

"We can’t get very…romantic, per se…in this school, anyways," PJ explained. "Not many people are…um…excepting, exactly."

"Oh. Thanks for the warning."

"Warning?" Chris asked.

"I’m gay, too."

"Oh my gosh, what are the chances? Good luck finding a boyfriend in this place," Chris said, clapping a hand on Phil’s shoulder, then looking around at the three of them. They had all finished their breakfasts. "How ‘bout we go to class then, eh?"

The three boys made their way upstairs to Mr. Adams’ classroom, finding seats in the back, all next to each other. Phil noticed that PJ and Chris were careful to not let it be too obvious that they were a couple. The classroom was nearly empty now, but more kids were streaming into it by the minute.

"Fags," Phil heard a voice mutter. He looked up and saw a boy, one who obviously seemed to think he was cool and popular. His shirt was loose and tie tied in a messy manner. He had hair that looked unkempt and a girl sitting next to him. She laughed at his incredibly rude remark.

Chris looked up from his staring at PJ’s face for a moment to look the boy dead in the eyes. “Fuck off.”

"Gaylord," the boy retorted randomly.

Chris and PJ both looked at the boy with matching expressions, unamused and unimpressed; eyebrows raised.

"Hey! You’re new. Are you—are you hanging out with  _them_? The faggots?” the boy said to Phil.

Phil tried ignoring him, but it didn’t work.

"Hey, fag! I’m talking to you. New kid. What’s your name?" the boy said.

"Faggot is not a punctuation mark," Phil said calmly, not looking at the boy.

"Oh, you talk! What’s your name?"

"Phil," Phil mumbled, feeling intimidated.

"Oi, Phil! You talk to me like that again, you’ll be sorry! You’d better watch your back!"

"Oh my god would you fucking  _fuck off already_?” Chris exclaimed exasperatedly. “How did you even get in Advanced English, anyways? You lower the IQ of the entire floor when you open your mouth.”

"You’re really asking for it!" the boy yelled.

"Richard, oh my god," the girl next to the boy, whose name was presumably Richard, said.

"Shut up. I can’t stand these faggots," Richard said.

"That’s no way to speak to a girl," PJ interjected quietly, looking embarrassed for talking. He had gone silent during the whole conversation.

"You’re telling  _me_  how to talk to a girl? You—” Richard got cut off by the closing of the door. The whole class immediately went silent.

Mr. Adams waltzed into the room. Phil couldn’t help but notice that Chris was, in fact, was quite right. He  _is_  good looking. He was tan, quite muscly, had wide shoulders, and short, curly hair. He looked too young and too fit to be a teacher.

"Welcome, students, to Advanced English! I’m Mr. Adams, your teacher for this year. I’m excited to be teaching this class. You  _all_  look like wonderful people.” Chris coughed loudly and shortly, momentarily pausing Mr. Adams’ speech. “I hope this year will be off to a great start. We’re going to have lots of fun!”

Phil glanced at Chris, who looked at Phil and winked at him. Phil had to stifle a laugh at Chris’s dirty mind and PJ gave them both a stop-it-we’re-in-class glower.

"This year, we’re going to be studying many forms of literature—poetry, creative writing, and, of course, essays. I hope you’re all ready to learn! This year is going to harder than last year, so I hope you’re all ready to study and work long and hard!" Mr. Adams continued. Chris couldn’t help but snort at Mr. Adams’s last remark. PJ glared at Chris with a look that told him to shut up, even though he was grinning himself. Phil tried hopelessly to cover his face so his smile didn’t look conspicuous.

"Is there a problem, boys?" Mr. Adams called to the back of the classroom.

"No, sir. Sorry," replied PJ.

"Good. Now, We’re going to start the year off with a poetry unit." Some of the class groaned. "We’re going to be covering all types of poetry, and we’re going to be covering many poets. You’re going to be experts by the end of the unit! After that, we’re going to be doing an essay…." Mr. Adams droned on about what they were going to cover that year. It actually seemed rather interesting to Phil. In his last school, the English program was not very good, which was disappointing, because Phil rather enjoyed writing and literature.

By the time the period had ended, all Mr. Adams had done was tell the class what to expect for the year. Therefore, no homework! Chris, PJ, and Phil all had to part ways for period two which none of them had together. For Phil, he had Maths next. Same as usual, they didn’t learn anything. His teacher, Mrs. Clemens, merely explained in an overly excited voice about how enjoyable the year was going to be.  _Yeah, right_ , Phil thought. He was terrible at maths. The class couldn’t have ended quick enough. When the bell sounded throughout the school, Phil was the second person out of the room. Next, third period was German, which passed in a flash. Luckily, his German classroom was across the hall form his math class. It passed in a confusing flash, as he didn’t seem to know as much German as the rest of his class. After it finished, Phil had biology.

Phil had trouble finding this class, since he hadn’t been shown where it was and he had to use a map. After fumbling with it, several things fell out of his backpack that he had to put back. When Phil finally got to the classroom, he was the last person there. Everybody’s eyes were on him. Even Dan’s. Because just as Phil’s luck would have it, Dan Howell, his incredibly hot and infuriating roommate, was not only sharing a room with him for a year, but a biology class.

Phil found a seat in the back of the room. His classmate’s eyes followed him, and Phil heard whispers of people that thought he couldn’t hear them.

"Did he go here last year?"

"He’s new, right?"

"Do you know what his name is?"

"Have you seen him here before?"

"That’s the kid that Rich told me about!"

Rich? That couldn’t be the same boy that had given Chris, PJ, and him a hard time in English class, had it? Richard was telling kids about Phil now? Fantastic. Phil was going to be known as a ‘faggot’ for the rest of his time at school.  _Just great_. Phil thought that he had escaped that by coming here, but he hadn’t even been in school for a full day and he was going to get teased for being gay. Phil let out a soft, sad sigh.

The teacher introduced herself as Ms. Henley. She was quite young and Phil supposed that she was quite good looking as far as women went. She had unnaturally blonde hair and clear skin, and wore a very stylish ensemble. From his vantage point in the back of the room, Phil could see how some of the boys looked at her and noticed that they seemed to think she was quite good looking too.

"Alright, class! I’ve heard that you’re all a very wonderful group of students and I can’t wait to teach you this year! Biology’s a  _wonderful_  class. It’ll be very fun!” Much like all the other classes Phil had attended so far, Ms. Henley spent the entire period telling everybody what was going to happen throughout the year.

Phil couldn’t help himself from glancing at the back of Dan’s head, which of course had a girl’s head very close—too close—to it. Phil couldn’t help but admire his hair, though. It was very nice hair. It was a very nice shade of brown. Quite dark but not quite black. He had really done a good job straightening it. If Phil hadn’t accidentally caught Dan doing his hair this morning, then Phil wouldn’t have even noticed. That girl, though…her head was really close to Dan’s. It was getting closer. Her head turned, and Phil saw her mouth move—she whispered something in Dan’s ear. He glanced at her for a second, then looked back at the front of the room. She whispered something in his ear again, but Dan glared at her, shook his head slightly, and she away, hurt. She slumped in her seat and didn’t look at Dan for the rest of the class.

After this class had finished, Phil went down to the cafeteria, bought some food, and sat down at Chris and PJ’s usual table, waiting for them to show up. They walked in standing a little bit too close to be friendly. As they walked by the seat where Richard sat on their way over, Richard stuck his elbow out, elbowing PJ in the gut. He doubled over for a moment before straightening himself out, and he and Chris quickly walked over to Phil.

"Ow," PJ muttered.

"Are you okay?" Chris asked worriedly.

"Yeah. I’m fine. It just…hurt. A lot," PJ mumbled, hand on his stomach.

"Rich’s a dick. He’s a fucking dick. I’m going to…I’m going—" Chris was cut off by PJ.

"Chris, I’m fine. Really. It was just a little bump."

"I’m going to fucking—"

“ _Chris_.”

Chris huffed. “Fine.”

"What’s Rich’s problem?" Phil asked.

"He’s a homophobic cunt," Chris growled.

"Oh my god. Would you calm down," PJ said to Chris.

"Are you guys, like….openly gay?" Phil asked hesitantly.

"Oh, hell no. Not in this place," PJ answered.

"Is it that bad? Should I not let anybody know, then?" Phil asked.

"Please don’t. The kids here…most of them were brought up thinking they were better than everyone else. It’s a terrible habit, and it leads to—"

"Being a homophobic cunt," Chris finished.

"That’s not exactly what I was going to say, but…yeah, basically," PJ agreed.

"Oh. Wait…how did you two…get together…?" Phil realized.

"Um, well, we knew each other before we went here. I got in, so PJ wanted to get in, too," Chris explained, looking fondly at PJ.

"Aw! That’s so sweet!" Phil exclaimed.

"It’s just a shame that we can’t be together publicly in school. I mean, we’re together  _privately_  a _lot_. We share a bedroom,” Chris smirked and PJ elbowed him. Phil giggled, tongue sticking out of the side of his mouth slightly.

Suddenly, the bell rang, signaling the end of the lunch period.

"See you later, Phil!" Chris and PJ said at the same time.

"Bye!"

Phil made his way through the rest of the day quite uneventfully. As a matter of fact, the next few days were quite uneventful. Come Friday, Dan still had barely said a word to him, the classes had progressed, but not much had happened, and the girls that sat practically on Dan still sat practically on Dan. Phil learned that their names were Daphne, Avery, and Lily. The girl that sat next to him in biology was Lily. The lamp separating the room was still in place, and Phil hadn’t crossed it. Phil did his hair in their room surreptitiously each morning while Dan did his in the bathroom. Phil hadn’t said anything to Dan about it—mostly because he was too afraid to.

Friday at lunch, Chris and PJ invited Phil to their room after school.

"Dan must be horrible to share a room with. We wouldn’t mind if you came to ours after school today," PJ offered.

"I thought we were going to try that new toy out," Chris grumbled.

"Chris!" PJ hissed, mortified, a blush spreading over his cheeks.

Phil’s eyes widened.

"We are  _not_  going to do that now, so if you want to meet me or Chris near the doors to building A at the end of the day, we’ll take you over to our room. We could do homework or something,” PJ said.

"I’d love to come. Thank you. I am getting pretty tired of Dan," Phil affirmed.

Chris looked a little grumpy. “Yeah. One of us’ll be there. But PJ,” Chris said, “we  _are_  going to try it out at some point, right? It cost money, y’know.”

PJ blushed a bright crimson. “I’d  _appreciate it_  if you didn’t go telling people about our sex life, Chris.”

"Sorry. But it makes you blush and that’s adorable."

That made PJ blush even more. Phil couldn’t help but smile at their playfulness. They were the most adorable, loving couple and it was such a shame that they couldn’t be open about it just because people couldn’t handle their relationship.

After lunch was over and Phil finished his last classes of the day, he went over to the doors of building A. Chris was waiting for him, and waved him over.

"Hey!"

"Hi, Chris!" exclaimed Phil.

"Come on. We’re dorm building D." Chris snorted. "It’s a bit of a walk,"

"Okay."

"So, what’re you doing this weekend? You’re going back to your house, right?" inquired Chris.

"No. My parents are really busy. That’s actually part of the reason why I’m going to this boarding school," Phil explained.

"Oh, that’s a shame. At least you’ll get your room to yourself this weekend, though. Most people go back to their homes on the weekends, and Dan will, too, probably," said Chris.

"I hope so. He never talks to me. It’s all just grunts and glares."

"At least he’s not yelled at you. That’d be worse."

"Oh, he has."

"What? Really?" asked Chris.

"Yeah…we had a bit of an…incident, and he got really angry. That’s why he doesn’t talk to me," Phil enlightened.

"What happened?"

"Well…he doesn’t want me to tell you. But you’re not going to say anything, right?" Phil questioned.

"Of course not."

"Okay. Well, he was taking me around the school, because, like, I asked him to. And he slipped on some stairs and I caught him."

"You  _what_?” asked Chris in disbelief.

"Well, he was going to break his neck or something! I didn’t even think. I just had to catch him," defended Phil.

"Wow. Well, here’s the room," Chris stopped walking and knocked on the door.

PJ opened it, smiling. Chris and Phil stepped in, Chris closing the door behind them and checking that it was locked.

"Hey, guys!" PJ exclaimed.

Phil waved.

"Hey, Peej," Chris said.

Chris almost immediately embraced PJ, and they kissed for a few moments before pulling away. PJ cleared his throat and Chris smiled in a proud, slightly smug manner.

"So, we can do whatever. I guess we should finish homework, but we don’t have to," suggested PJ.

"Nah, let’s do it. Get it over with," Chris said.

"Yeah," Phil added.

The boys got out their books and sprawled over the room, PJ and Chris next to each other, occasionally exchanging a few quick, chaste kisses while doing their homework. Laughter and good spirits filled the air, and the time flew by. Before Phil knew it, it was ten o’clock, and curfew was in two hours. They had finished their homework long ago, and were now just talking and laughing.

"Oh my gosh! It’s ten already! I should go soon. I don’t want to get caught after curfew," Phil realized.

"No way! The time really flew by. I guess we’ll see you Monday," PJ said.

"Sorry we’re leaving you here all weekend, mate. But PJ’s parents aren’t going to be home this weekend," Chris grinned.

PJ just laughed. “It’s quite a rare occurrence, so we have to take advantage of it.”

Phil left smiling. He couldn’t believe how lucky he had gotten, being friends with Chris and PJ. He walked out of their dorm building with his backpack into the dark, inky night. The clouds obscured the moon only partially, and Phil thought that he could even see some stars. He felt warm and fuzzy inside—not even having to back to the room he shared with Dan could ruin his mood. Chris and PJ were the best people he could have hoped to meet. Phil cut through the courtyard. As he rounded the corner, though, he saw a horrible sight that put him right out of his good mood.

A gang of people were standing in the middle of the courtyard, talking and yelling loudly. Phil swore he heard a voice that sounded like Richard’s. How was Phil going to get out of here? This was the only way he knew to get to building B. Phil walked slowly and quietly on the gravel which crunched under his feet, hoping to god that they wouldn’t notice him.

"Hey! Who’s that?" someone called.

 _No no no. Keep walking. Maybe they didn’t notice me. Maybe they’re talking to somebody else_ , Phil thought.

"Get over here!"

Phil sprinted. They were talking to him, he knew it. But Phil couldn’t run very fast, as he wasn’t in the best shape. Phil heard footsteps behind him. They were too close. Phil’s backpack bounced on his back, slowing him down. Suddenly, a rock caught his foot and Phil was on the ground, backpack a few feet away, moaning in pain. He had managed to break his fall with his hands, which stung like hell. The gravel had broken the skin, he was sure of it.

"Hey! Who the fuck—OI! GUYS! It’s the faggot!" the person called. Phil went to get up, but a foot was on his back, holding him down.

"Look who it is!" Phil heard Richard say as he walked over. Phil was positive that it was Richard.

"Fucking faggot," Richard said, kicking Phil in the side. "What’re you doing here, huh? You were hanging out with the fags today, weren’t you?"

Richard kicked Phil in the side once more, and Phil grunted in pain. “Are you going to answer me? Huh?”

"What did I do? Let me go. I won’t bother you," Phil pleaded.

"What did you do? You’re disgusting. You’re going to bother me being gay. I suggest you stop or you’re really going to take back your stupid choice," Richard growled.

"It’s not—OW!" Phil whimpered after getting kicked especially hard.

"Shut up! Get out! If you tell anyone, you’re…you’re really going to wish you hadn’t," threatened Richard.

Phil got up and ran. He grabbed his backpack and sprinted towards into his room as fast as he could trying to ignore the shooting pains in his side, tears forming in his eyes. Jeers were called out behind him until he was far enough away.

Phil burst into the dorm room, completely forgetting about Dan.

"Phil, what the fuck-oh my  _god_ , are you  _crying_?”


	4. Chapter 4

**Warning: Some blood (it’s not gory)**

“N-no!” Phil stammered, hastily wiping at his eyes.

“Phil, you’re crying,” Dan stated, face emotionless.

“I-I’m not!” Phil stuttered. He turned away from Dan, too distraught to realize that Dan was _actually talking to him_ , when he hadn’t said a word to Phil for the entire week.

“Phil. What the _actual fuck_!” Dan sounded…angry? This confused Phil.

Phil sniffled and wiped his nose, ignoring Dan.

“Phil! I’m talking to you!”

Phil didn’t know what to do then, so he stood, facing away from Dan, trying not to start sobbing.

“Wh—you’re bleeding, Phil!” Dan yelled. “What the _fuck_? Your shirt has blood on it!”

Richard must have kicked him harder than he had realized, and now he was bleeding. No wonder it hurt so much. The pain brought more tears to Phil’s eyes, and looking down, Phil saw that the side of his button down uniform shirt—the right side where Richard had kicked him—was indeed bloodied, and Phil felt a little bit dizzy. Dan pointed Phil’s injury out…but why? What was Dan’s issue? Why did he seem to care all of a sudden?

“Phil, answer me! What the _fuck_ happened?” Dan yelled.

“I-I fell!” Phil partially lied, too scared to continue evading Dan.

“Bullshit.”

“I did!” insisted Phil.

“What happened after you fell?” Dan queried. Phil still hadn’t turned to look at him.

“I got up.”

“Sure. What—did you fall down two flights of stairs?”

“No.”

“Well then, what exactly happened?”

“What’s it to you?” Phil yelled back, suddenly angry. “You don’t say anything to me for a week, then you suddenly start caring when I get hurt?”

“You’re out until ten thirty on a Friday night and then you come back crying with fucked up hands and a bloody shirt! Maybe I’m worried!” Dan blurted.

Phil froze his sniveling and turned slowly around to look at Dan. “You…what? Worried? About… _me_?”

“I…” Dan covered his face in his hands and then threw his hands away from his face, making a noise of anger and frustration. “Urgh! I just…that’s not what I meant.”

“Oh,” Phil said quietly. He got his hopes up for a second, thinking that maybe even if Dan wasn’t gay, maybe they could even at least have the chance at being friends. But no. No, Dan didn’t care about him after all.

“No! I didn’t…you’re bleeding. Let’s inspect that cut,” Dan said finally.

Phil gaped in disbelief at Dan. “What?”

“You’re bleeding and won’t tell me what happened, so I need to make sure that whatever you have won’t get infected,” Dan grumbled.      

“Um,” Phil mumbled, unsure of what was wrong with Dan.

“Take off your shirt; I’ll go get a first aid kit. Unless you want to go to the nurse’s office,” Dan sneered. He turned around, opened the door, and walked out into the hallway, leaving Phil now sitting down on his bed. His eyes were red rimmed and his nose runny, and the incessant pain in his side not helping to clear them up. Phil’s hands stung but he didn’t look at them. He was still in shock from the way Dan was acting. Or was he acting? Phil was so confused—he had no idea what was going on with Dan. He wasn’t going to take his shirt off as Dan had told him to—he was probably going to make fun of Phil— _but damn, was that hot_.

Dan walked into the room with a little white box in his hands, shutting and locking the door to the room, then walking over to where Phil was sitting wide-eyed on his bed.

“You need to take your shirt off or I can’t do anything about your cut,” Dan muttered, ears going a little pink.

“Maybe I don’t want you doing anything about it. I can take care of it myself,” shot Phil defensively. He was very self-conscious of his body, especially around Dan.

“Oh? Fine, then. If you can take care of yourself, go ahead.” Dan said sarcastically.

“I will,” Phil pronounced.

“Fine.”

Dan got up and walked across the room, sitting down on his own bed and not bothering with what Phil was doing. Phil opened the first aid kit and inspected the contents. There was gauze, a tube of antiseptic, a pack of assorted band aids, tweezers, an ice pack (the weird kind that he didn’t know how to use), and a variety of other things that he didn’t know what to do with. After glancing at Dan to make sure that he wasn’t looking at him, Phil unbuttoned his shirt, gingerly taking it off and balling it up next to him. He now inspected his injury. He had a large bruise already forming on his right side and several scrapes. A particularly large wound was bleeding, making Phil feel dizzy at the sight of it. He had never been good with the sight of blood. As a child, he had outright fainted once after cutting himself with a needle. His head was spinning. The beige carpeted floor was tilting. Phil laid down, shutting his eyes and trying his hardest to ignore the intense pain that only got worse with movement.

“Phil?” he heard Dan call. “Are you okay?”

Phil groaned in response, trying to clear his head.

Suddenly, there was a pressure on his green and blue quilted bed. What was Dan doing? Phil tried to open his eyes, but the tilting, blurry room only made him feel worse. He felt a hand on his chest.

“Phil, sit up or roll over.”

Phil felt too dizzy to ignore Dan or sit up, so he rolled over onto his left side. He heard Dan gasp quietly when he saw the mess that was Phil’s injury.

“I’ll be right back. If you need to throw up or anything, uh…” A dragging noise filled the room for a moment. “Use this trashcan. I need to get something.”

The door opened and closed. Phil felt his head clearing, but his pain rendered him unable to do anything. He lie motionless and silent until Dan came back. Phil saw Dan come back into the room with a washcloth and a bowl.

“Um, this might hurt but I need you to stay still,” Dan said.

Phil groaned quietly, nodding his head a little. Dan took this as a go-ahead, and Phil watched as Dan dipped the washcloth in the bowl and brought it out dripping.

“It’s just water,” he reassured. “I need to clean this before I can do anything else.”

Dan ever so softly rested the washcloth down on Phil’s side, and it stung. Phil winced, but then relaxed as he got used to it, resting his head down onto the soft blankets of his bed. He opened his eyes to look at Dan, who seemed to be very immersed in his work on cleaning Phil’s injury. Dan slowly dabbed at the cuts and bruises littering Phil’s side, cleaning the dried blood from his body. He used such little pressure and did it so skillfully, so gently that Phil barely felt anything besides the warmth of the washcloth. Dan’s hands created butterflies in Phil’s stomach. He definitely had a crush on Dan, Phil realized. He might be a twat most of the time, but right now he wasn’t. Dan seemed so caring, and Phil longed for him to be this way more often. He relaxed, eyes closed, into the soft bed and Dan’s warm touches.

A minute or two passed in silence, Dan seemingly oblivious to the world and Phil in bliss, when Dan stopped, putting the washcloth into the bowl of water.

“Okay, so it’s pretty clean, but still bleeding. I’ll need to put some of this antiseptic cream on it, then I’ll have to wrap your side in the gauze. This is a fucking huge cut but it’s not deep. Uh,  you need to sit up for this,” Dan added.

Phil nodded and complied in a sleepy daze, even though it hurt. Dan opened the bottle and put some of the cream on his fingers, then rubbed it onto Phil’s side. It was cool and slightly numbing, providing instant relief. Dan’s hands worked it all over Phil’s right side; onto all the bruises, cuts, and scrapes. Dan then took the roll of gauze from the kit and carefully and gently started wrapping it around Phil’s torso, compressing the injuries.

“Lift your arms,” murmured Dan, so he could get better access to Phil’s body. Phil did as he was asked. When Dan was finished, he stepped back to admire his handiwork.

“It shouldn’t take too long to heal—no longer than two or three weeks, one at the absolute quickest. You’ll need to replace the gauze tomorrow when you take a shower,” Dan informed Phil.

Dan was going back home this weekend, wasn’t he? Just like everybody else in the school. People went home on the weekends, but Phil’s family was too busy to have him home—for this weekend, at least. And probably the next weekend. And the weekend after that. Phil would practically have the entire school to himself for two whole days. How weird and lonely that would be.

“Okay. Thanks, Dan,” Phil said quietly, with tiredness clearly present in his voice. “I’ll manage while you’re away.”

“Away?” Dan asked. “What do you mean?”

“Aren’t you going home this weekend to see your family?” inquired Phil, confused.

“This _is_ my home. My dad owns the school. My family lives in a huge mansion on the school property,” Dan explained.

“Wow. Wait—then why do you have a dorm? Can’t you just stay at home?”

“I’m sick and tired of the people in my house. There’s a lot of pressure to be perfect and I can’t stand it,” Dan mumbled.

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

‘Well, g’night, Dan.”

“Night, Phil,” Dan said, getting off the bed and stripping into boxers (it was still incredibly hot and Phil couldn’t help but admire Dan’s flawless body and amazing ass) before turning off the lamp that was still in the middle of the room and slipping under the covers. Phil stayed on top of the bed sheets, not wanting to irritate his injury with friction. Although the pain was somewhat lessened, it was still there and it kept Phil awake. He lie there motionless and a little cold, wishing for sleep to consume him.

Phil was awoken a few hours later to familiar whimpers from the other side of the room. Dan seemed to have nightmares every single night, and Dan’s little noises kept Phil awake. What could Dan be dreaming about? Was it something that happened to him, or was it just made up? Phil had so many questions about the boy on the other side of the room that he thought he was never going to have the answers to. It seemed like it was a miracle that had made Dan finally, _finally_ talk to him, and Phil wasn’t going to get his hopes up thinking that Dan would act this way again. In fact, Phil wouldn’t be surprised if the next morning, Dan didn’t bring up anything about this night and ignored him. It was disappointing but it was also Dan’s nature. Phil would never be able to do anything about his hopeless crush on that boy. Phil soon fell asleep, swirling thoughts smothered by sleep.

~

The morning light filtered through the open curtains on the windows, falling onto Phil’s sleeping face. He opened his eyes and then shielded them from the sun with his blanket covered arm, blinking.

“You awake?” Phil heard Dan call from across the room.

Phil made a noise of discontent, and Dan laughed.

“You’d better be; it’s eleven in the morning and everybody’s left already,” Dan announced.

“Already?” Phil grumbled.

“This school isn’t exactly the ideal place for people to spend their weekends, if you hadn’t noticed. Now, I need to inspect your injury. Get up, come on,” Dan said.

Phil rolled out of his bed, only wearing sweatpants. Dan got off his bed, walked across the room and sat next to Phil, ready with a bowl and clean washcloth. His hair was already straightened. _He must have been up for a while_ , Phil realized. Dan gingerly unwrapped the gauze from Phil’s torso, Phil shivering at their proximity to each other and Dan’s gentle touches. The gauze was slightly bloodied and Phil’s side had dried blood on it.

“Okay, I’ll need to clean this up. Tell me if it hurts, ok? I don’t want to reopen your injury,” Dan told Phil.

“Uh, okay,” Phil answered, confused. Where had this nice Dan come from? Did it have something to do with it being the weekend and nobody being here? Maybe Dan’s hostility was just a façade. He wasn’t going to complain, though—this was something he could get used to. Not only was Dan nice like this, but it was downright adorable. He was still hot, but now he was adorable, too.

Dan carefully dabbed at Phil’s side with the warm, damp washcloth until he was clean, both of them sitting in silence. When Dan finished, he wrapped Phil’s injury with fresh gauze.

“Are you gonna tell me how this happened?” Dan asked him.

“Nope,” Phil replied. He didn’t Dan to think that he was weak or to pity him—or worse, make fun of him. He couldn’t trust Dan now; he was being too confusing.

“Why not?” Dan asked, standing up and lazily draping himself backwards across Phil’s desk chair.

“B-because. I-it’s not important,” Phil managed out, flustered by how attractive Dan looked right now. He had really long, beautiful legs that Phil just wanted to… _Oh, no. Shush!_ Phil reprimanded himself. _Don’t get all gay on him._ Phil had really exercised the most amount of self-control this week over his thoughts that he thought he could.

“Well, _I_ think it is. Seriously. What happened?” inquired Dan.

“What does it matter to you?” Phil growled.

“I thought we went over this last night, Phil! Just tell me what the fuck happened!”

“Why?”

“Because maybe I want to know!”

“It doesn’t matter! Just stop, okay? It’s not a big deal.” Phil got up and pulled on a clean shirt. “I’m going to get ready. Don’t—don’t bring this up again. It doesn’t matter.” Phil left the room to go take a morning shower, taking care not to get the gauze wet. When he was finished, he went back to the room, opening the door quietly and walking in. Dan was sat back on his bed and didn’t acknowledge Phil. He didn’t even look at him. _Normal Dan is back_ , Phil thought. Phil went back over to his side of the room, not wanting to risk angering Dan by “trespassing” on his space. There was a tangible tension in the air.

Phil wasn’t quite sure what to do. Should he ignore Dan? Should he admit what had actually happened? Phil decided on neither.

“Dan?”

“Mmph.”

“If you want me to tell you what happened, you’ll have to tell me something, too,” Phil bargained.

“What?” asked Dan, confused. He instantly broke out of his ignoring Phil act because of the intrigue.

“What do you dream about?” Phil asked blatantly.

“What do I—what?”

“Well, if you want to know something personal about me, it’s only fair that I learn something personal about you,” reasoned Phil.

Dan grunted. “Fine, I’ll stop bothering you.”

“No, Dan. I really want to know. You keep me awake at night.”

“Ha ha. Am I that mystifying?” Dan asked sarcastically.

“That’s not what I meant. You’re very…loud at night.”

Dan blanched. “It’s nothing,” he muttered.

“Okay,” Phil decided drop the subject and stop prying. He had gotten confident—too confident, it seemed—with Dan lately, and he didn’t want to push his luck. Phil sat on his bed in silence, listening to the clicks of Dan’s computer. He opened his book and started reading, even though he couldn’t quite concentrate, so much was the silence of the room. Phil had discovered in his first week at the school that it was actually quite hard to concentrate with Dan anywhere near him. He was so freaking _attractive_ …. Phil couldn’t keep his mind from wandering to thoughts about how he wanted to pull that stupid, perfectly styled brown hair. Or kiss those annoyingly perfect full, pink lips. And stare for eternity into those golden brown eyes. It kept him from doing his homework, from sleeping. From reading.

Half an hour later at about 12:00 in the afternoon, Phil’s stomach rumbled loudly and he realized that he hadn’t eaten lunch yet.

“Um, Dan?”

“Hm.”

“Does the cafeteria have food now?” Phil asked tentatively.

“Yeah,” Dan grunted.

“I’m gonna go down to get some. Uh, if you want to come with me…” Phil trailed off.

“Why?” Dan asked, not breaking his gaze from the computer.

“I dunno. If you’re hungry, I guess?”

“I’m not.”

“Okay. I’ll just go eat by myself, then,” Phil declared. He pulled on some jeans in case somebody was there and he didn’t want to look like a mess in front of them. Walking the empty halls of the school, Phil was amazed by the silence permeating the building. The usually bustling, crowded corridors filled with talking students was now devoid of any being besides Phil. The floors looked freshly cleaned, probably done by the janitors. It was a shame that their hard work was going to be ruined so fast, come Monday.

Entering the cafeteria and quickly getting food, Phil sat down at his usual table, despite the fact that there were only two other students in the cafeteria. He ate his food quickly, not wanting to prolong the palpable awkwardness between him and the other two teenagers in there. Not looking up, Phil shoved his sandwich into his mouth, trying to finish it as fast as he could.

Suddenly, somebody sat next to Phil. He looked up and did a double take. _Dan_ was sitting next to him? In public? Well, it wasn’t exactly public, seeing as there were only two other people in the room, but still. What had gotten into him this weekend? Dan didn’t look at Phil, or even acknowledge that he was there as he ate his own sandwich. Phil shook his head and got back to eating. Neither boy said anything to the other; they just sat and ate in silence.

Upon finishing, Phil got up and threw away his trash. He walked out of building A and onto the gravel pathway that lead him to his dorm building, relishing the miraculously sunny afternoon and perfectly manicured green grass. The birds were chirping and the sky was actually blue instead of gray, and Phil decided that there was no way he could spend the rest of the day inside. He found a bench and closed his eyes, listening to the wind rustle the leaves of the trees and the chirping of the birds. A body suddenly sat down next to him, and peeking an eye open, Phil confirmed his suspicions—it was, in fact, Dan.

“Hey, Dan.”

“Hey,” Dan replied. 

Phil decided not to try initiating conversation, as Dan didn’t seem to be up for it at the moment. Instead, they both sat in silence.

A few minutes later, Phil decided to try again. “So, it’s really nice today, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” came Dan’s short answer.

“I can’t believe the sun is actually shining,” Phil continued to attempt.

“Mm-hm.”

“Dan, come on, talk to me!” Phil said, exasperated.

“I am! What do you want me to say?”

“I don’t know. Something that would contribute to the conversation?”

“Mm…no.”

Phil sighed. “Well, I guess I’ve had enough for now. I’ll see you later.” He got up and started walking. Dan followed after him.

They walked in now familiar awkward silence until they got to the dorm, Dan shutting and locking the door behind them. Phil sat on his bed, but instead of Dan going to his own, he sat next to Phil. Phil couldn’t take it anymore.

“Alright, Dan. What’s gotten into you?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” asked Dan defensively.

“You don’t look at me for a week and then you’re taking care of me! Why?” inquired Phil.

“That’s not important.”

“Well, I think it is. I want to know, Dan,” Phil insisted.

“Shut the fuck up,” Dan glared, standing up.

Phil widened his eyes in shock. What did he say? Why was Dan angry?

“Sorry,” he muttered shyly.

“You’d better be,” Dan growled. “I’ll be back later tonight. Don’t you even _think_ about touching anything I own.”

And with that, Dan got up and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him. What had Phil done?


	5. Chapter 5

Phil was jolted out of his book induced fantasy when the door slammed open, then closed. He looked up, bright blue eyes wide, at Dan Howell, the incredibly attractive boy standing in the doorway who was soaked head to toe with water. His black t-shirt was sticking to his body, and his shorts were halfway down his butt which exposed his partially see-through white and red checked boxers. Dan’s brown hair was plastered to his face and dripped water into his eyes.

Dan promptly walked over to his side of the room and stripped down to his boxers, then shook his hair out, spraying water around the room. Some water droplets got onto Phil’s book.

“Don’t look,” Dan yelled at Phil, and Phil quickly adverted his eyes whilst Dan put on some dry boxers.

After a few moments and the rustling of fabric against skin, Phil nervously asked, “Can I look yet?” not wanting to anger Dan. He was looking at the wall next to his bed and it was starting to hurt his neck.

“Sure.”

“Uh…what happened?” Phil asked. Was it raining? It couldn’t have been—it was so nice and sunny a few hours ago. What a shame. Well, there’s England for you. However, Dan, although wet and probably cold, seemed to be in a much better emotional situation than earlier. Whatever he had done or wherever he had been, had seemed to put him in relatively better spirits.

“Rain,” Dan grunted. He didn’t do it hostilely; he just seemed tired.

“Where were you?” inquired Phil tentatively. He didn’t want to anger Dan, as he seemed to rise to anger very quickly and especially when asked personal questions. He was avoiding something, Phil could tell. What did he want to hide?

“Outside,” answered Dan shortly. Phil didn’t ask anything else, as he could tell that Dan wasn’t going to answer them and he didn’t want to risk getting yelled at.

“Oh,” Phil replied softly, looking at the clock next to his bed. The glowing numbers showed that it was only 8:00. Phil decided to read, and he read until his eyes were burning and struggling to distinguish the words from each other as they blurred into a fuzzy, jumbled black mess and melted across the pages. He fell asleep at 3:00 AM with a finished book.

~

Phil awoke with a jolt to the loud rumbling of thunder, followed quickly by a flash of lightning. He heard the wind howling outside and the rain pelting the windows with extreme force. But even though the sounds of the storm were loud, they couldn’t smother Dan’s unconscious whimpers. As a matter of fact, Dan’s sounds seemed to be competing with the storm outside. The whimpers gradually turned into cries, and Phil swore he heard Dan mumble something that sounded like, “I can’t!” Suddenly, Dan emitted a bloodcurdling scream. It was loud and deafening and _thank God there was practically nobody else in the school_.

Dan awoke with tears staining his pillow, gasping for breath and trying to control his erratic breathing. He felt adrenaline pump through his veins, making him feel alert and even more terrified. His dream was bad enough, but it was dark and storming outside, too. Then he remembered something: Phil was in the room with him. _Phil was in the room_. Phil most definitely would have heard him and could probably see him, too. Shit.

“Um, Dan?” Phil asked tentatively. He could hear Dan’s fast and heavy breathing, and wondered if he was okay.

Dan didn’t answer. He was too busy trying to get a fucking grip on himself.

Phil got up and walked over to Dan, towering over the other boy. Dan realized he had tears streaming down his face and wiped them away.

“Dan, are you okay?” Phil asked softly, trying to be as kind as possible. He didn’t want Dan to lash out at him.

“I’m…fine,” Dan choked out.

“No, you’re not. What happened?”

“It’s none of your fucking business, Phil,” Dan gasped between shudders, sobs, and breaths. Even though he was struggling, he was still trying to appear stronger and in charge. In that moment, Phil pitied him. Dan’s hostility was a façade, and Phil saw right through it.

“Do you know what? It is. It is completely my…uh, business. We share a room, and we’re going to be for a year. I think I deserve to know what you dream about every night,” Phil said.

“I don’t want to…talk about it. Not yet,” Dan managed.

Phil sat on Dan’s bed and carefully, gently placed a hand on Dan’s head. He wove his fingers in the other boy’s hair. Later, he would use the excuse that he was too sleep-drunk to realize what he was doing. But now it didn’t matter. Phil saw Dan, sweating, shuddering, tears silently streaming down his face and fists holding for dear life onto the sheets. He saw Dan’s warm, brown eyes clench shut and brown hair messy and not styled. Phil saw a vulnerable boy that needed help in this moment, no matter how he had acted earlier. So Phil reciprocated. He rubbed Dan’s head soothingly and whispered calming things to him. Dan seemed to start calming down.

“Phil,” Dan gasped suddenly, “It was so _horrible_. H-he…he was there again. I’ve never _seen_ him, Phil! I never _did_ anything! B-but he comes _back_ , every night. And I can’t h-help him! He gets so angry. He gets so _angry_ , Phil!” Dan started sobbing again.

“Dan, Dan, you’re okay. You’re okay. Shh, shh. It was just a dream,” Phil soothed.

“That’s what scares me so much,” Dan whimpered, going into another round of sobs. On a spur of the moment decision, Phil scooted Dan over in the bed and crawled in next to him under the covers. He didn’t really care that Dan would probably yell at him in the morning. Phil was now able to wrap his arms around Dan’s bare torso, who tucked his head into Phil’s chest and stained his shirt with terrified tears. Phil was very aware of Dan’s lack of clothing, but he wasn’t focused on that now. In an attempt to calm Dan, Phil whispered “Shh, shh, shh. You’re okay. You’re okay. Shh,” like a mantra. Slowly, Dan’s sobs subsided. His shoulders stopped their shaking and his breathing calmed.

Phil looked down at the boy wrapped in his arms and realized he was asleep. Phil was quite tired too, and he shut his eyes.

~

A loud clap of thunder jostled Phil from his sleep, and he woke up disoriented. He wasn’t in his bed…but he was in his room. All of a sudden, last night’s events rushed into his mind. The storm, the nightmare, _Dan,_ who shouldn’t be able to look so good while crying and sniveling. Phil became acutely aware of the warmth of the boy curled up against him and panicked. What was Dan going to think when he awoke and realized that Phil’s arms were wrapped around him? Phil decided that he didn’t exactly want to find out, so he slowly and carefully  pulled the covers back and got out of the bed, not being able to help himself an appreciative look over Dan. _His smooth, tan skin that Phil just wanted to touch and caress and kiss and—_ Phil cut his thoughts off before they could wander into more dangerous waters.

Limberly climbing out of the bed, Phil made sure not to touch Dan any more than he had to and then tucked the covers around the other boy to keep him warm. Looking over at the ever useful bedside clock, Phil noticed that it was about seven o’clock and there wasn’t really any point in going back to sleep. Instead, he got out his computer and went on tumblr to waste away time until Dan started doing something. Around an hour later, Phil heard a garbled and intelligible grumble from across the room. He paused and looked over at Dan, who yawned and stretched his arms out behind his head.

Dan looked apprehensively over at Phil as if he needed confirmation that last night had really happened, and then looked confused when he saw that Phil wasn’t in the bed with him. Phil wasn’t quite sure what to say.

“So, uh…” Phil trailed off, “About last night…”

“Uh.”

“Can I…ask you about it?” Phil asked, unsure.

Dan sighed. “Maybe.”

“What happened?”

“I had a nightmare. And a you pointed out earlier, I have them just about every night,” Dan huffed.

“Can I ask you about what? You kind of mentioned it, I just wasn’t sure…” Phil didn’t want to anger Dan after seeing how harshly he reacted to some things.

“I…”Dan put his head in his hand. “Look, Phil, you deserve to know. But it’s too early for this shit. Later. I don’t know if that’s going to be today or in five months. Just…later.”

“Okay.” Phil respected Dan’s decision.

“But, um…about last night…were you actually…did we literally, like, _sleep in the same bed_? Because I’m not gay, Phil. I don’t know why I let you do that, but it’s not happening again. I don’t know if you’re gay or whatever, but…yeah, just…no,” Dan said awkwardly.

“Oh. Yeah, of course,” Phil said. _Dammit!_ “But, like, would it bother you if I was gay…?” Phil blurted.

Dan’s eyes went as round and wide as galleons. “Uh, no?”

“Oh. Well, good, ‘cause I am.”

“You’re gay,” Dan stated in seeming disbelief.

“You said you wouldn’t have a problem with it…” Phil reminded Dan timidly.

“I don’t. I dunno, you just…you don’t seem very gay.”

“Oh,” Phil said, and nonchalantly went back to scrolling through tumblr.

 “Like, I didn’t meant that as an insult, I just—“

Phil grunted.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“No, what?’

“Nothing.”

“Fine.”

The boys sat in awkward silence.

“Dan?” Phil asked.

“What?”

“Can I ask you something? Promise you won’t get angry at me.”

Dan looked dead at Phil, and Phil could see the badly concealed panic in his eyes.

“Depends.”

“Why are you so nice to me all of a sudden?” Phil held his breath. This was the question that had made Dan storm out of the room last night and come back soaking wet. This was the question that had sparked Dan’s immediate fury.

“I…Phil, I don’t want to be mean to you.” Dan looked away. “But there’s a certain way I have to be, and you…you make it impossible. So, I can’t be friends with you, and you can’t be friends with me. That’s just the way it is. But nobody’s here on the weekends, so I…I don’t have to be the bad guy anymore. I don’t _want_ to be mean, Phil. But that’s just the way I was raised. But if word gets out that I’m…friends…with you, that I’m spending time with you…I’d be ruined. No—everybody would ruin me.”

Phil looked at Dan in shock. Dan thought that being friends with Phil would ruin his reputation or something, so _that’s_ why he was mean? Wow. Phil didn’t know whether to be awed or offended. He decided on both, but “oh,” was his only reply. Dan sighed and shook his head.

“I…Phil, I want to be friends with you. I want to be nice you. But I can’t let anybody know about it, and if I were to slip up…the consequences would be disastrous.”

“Well then, how about we’re just friends on weekends?” Phil suggested timidly.

“I…what?”

“Well, you could be indifferent to me during the week or whatever, but on the weekends, we could be friends,” Phil explained.

“Phil, I’ve thought about that, and I just don’t know.”

“We could just give it a go. Let’s be friends today, and then tomorrow you could go back to hating me or whatever.”

“Are you sure?” Dan asked skeptically.

“Positive! Let’s just try it.”

“I guess…I guess it couldn’t hurt. But you have to promise not to tell anybody, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Well then…I guess we’re friends for a day!” Dan exclaimed, smiling in a joyous way that Phil had never seen before.

“I guess…yeah,” Phil smiled softly. “Hey, do you wanna do something? We can’t let this day go to waste.”

“What is there to do?”

“We could…” Phil searched around the room in a desperate attempt to form ideas. Suddenly, he had a great idea after realizing that the rain had let up. “We could go for a walk.”

“Isn’t that kind of gay?’

“Well if you’d rather not,” Phil said, blushing.

“No, let’s go. Nobody’s going to be here to see anything. As long as we’re back by four. That’s when everybody starts showing up again.”


	6. Chapter 6

The woods surrounding the back of the school were wet. Water dripped from the trees, water trickled in streams over the ground, water mixed with the dirt to create muddy footprints in the ground. Water droplets were all over each and every plant. The sky was still grey and obscured the sun, making it a little bit cold. Dan and Phil walked next to each other, laughing and talking as they walked deeper into the heart of the woods. The boys took care not to get too close to each other, though. Phil didn’t want to take his chances with Dan.

Phil carried in his backpack two sandwiches and two bottles of water that Dan had somehow gotten. Dan lead the way, claiming to know where they should go, so Phil didn’t question him. Dan, however, wouldn’t tell Phil where he was taking him, only assuring Phil every few  minutes that they were getting closer. The woods were getting denser, the trees closer together, and the mostly obscured sun less able to shine through the trees, making it seem very dark. Dan turned off the path they were following, leading Phil between the dense shrubbery.

“Uh, Dan? Are you _sure_ you know where you’re going?” Phil asked for the umpteenth time.

“I’ve lived here my entire life. I’ve been in the forest, like, a million times.”

“Then where are we going?”

“You’ll see when we get there,” Dan smirked. “But we’re close.”

Up ahead, Phil noticed that he could see the sky. They stumbled upon a clearing. Here, the trees were sparse and Phil could finally see the sky visibly. It was still cloudy and grey—if possible, even darker than earlier, and it looked like it was going to start raining...again. Phil looked over at Dan, who had a huge grin forming on his face.

“We’re here, Phil!” Dan exclaimed. “God, I love this place. You can’t tell anybody about it, though.”

“Got it. Um. What…do you want to do?”

“Eat?” Dan suggested.

“Sounds good,” Phil grinned.

“We can sit over here, on these rocks,” Dan said, leading Phil over to a few large rocks on the ground. Phil got the food out of the backpack while Dan set it out. He used one large rock as a table, while another few rocks could be used as a sort of chair. Dan sat on one side of the table rock, whilst Phil sat on the other side.  

“So, you didn’t tell me. Where did you get the food from?” Phil asked Dan.

Dan grinned that adorable little smirk that showed his adorable little dimple. Ugh. Dan was just so adorable and Phil wanted to bang his head against the rock in frustration because Dan wasn’t into boys.

“What did you do?” Phil asked, as Dan wasn’t answering, just grinning.

“I may have stolen it.”

“ _What_? From where?”

“The cafeteria,” Dan answered, smirk changing into an amused smile that crinkled his eyes at Phil’s shocked face.

“Wh—why didn’t you just _pay_ for it?”

“I didn’t feel like it.”

“You didn’t _feel_ like it?” Phil repeated.

“No.”

Phil laughed. Dan was just so…adorable. He might not ever agree to that (Or even get to hear it. Phil didn’t want to creep him out), but it was so true.

“Why are you laughing?”

“You’re so ador—uh, funny,” Phil caught himself. Dan suddenly smiled even bigger and… _was he blushing_? No, no, he was _not_. Phil decided to chalk it up to the long walk that they had taken to get here. It had been quite a bit of exercise, anyways.

The two boys started eating their lunches of stolen sandwiches, taking their time and savoring each other’s company. Phil decided that his dry turkey and cheese sandwich wasn’t even that good, but he didn’t care. Because he was spending time with Dan, his crush, alone, deep in the woods. Maybe that sounded a little bit weird, but Phil didn’t care. It felt very satisfying.

“So, um—“ Dan took a giant bit of his sandwich. “How’shur lunsh?”

Phil grinned at Dan. How could he be so cute? “It’s great,” he lied.

The boys finished their lunches in a slightly awkward silence, undoubtedly both reveling in the fact that they were now practically friends when only a day ago Dan had barely wanted to look at Phil.

“You done?” Dan asked Phil.

“Yeah.”

“Okay then, come here. I want to show you something!” Dan sprung up from his rock-chair and grabbed Phil’s arm, leading him across the clearing to the base of a really, really tall tree.

“You can climb trees, right?” Dan asked.

Phil couldn’t. Not really. He had tried, of course, as a child, but after falling from one and breaking his wrist, Phil hadn’t exactly been very excited to climb any more trees. But Phil wasn’t going to admit that to Dan. He didn’t want Dan thinking he was weak.

“Yeah, I can,” Phil hesitated.

“Awesome. So, the view up there is…it’s breathtaking, Phil. I want to show you. When I was younger, I used to come up here all the time. Nobody ever knew. They still don’t. Come on!” Dan grabbed the branch lowest to the ground a nimbly hoisted himself up, branch by branch. Phil was amazed at the agility the boy had when it came to climbing. He climbed the tree like one would climb a staircase: with familiarity and confidence. Dan was halfway to the top and Phil was still at the bottom staring at him, jaw unconsciously dropped.

“Phil?” Dan called, looking down. “You wanna come up here?”

“I…uh, yeah! Yeah, coming,” Phil yelled up, shaking himself from his stupor. He cautiously grabbed the bottommost branch and attempted to pull himself up, but barely managed it because of his lacking upper body strength.

“D’you need help, Phil?” Dan shouted down.

“I’ve got it!” Phil said shakily.

“You sure?” Dan sounded unconvinced.

“Uh, yeah, I—AH!” Phil had gone to reach for another branch, but slipped. Luckily, he managed to catch himself, but he was shaking from the adrenaline coursing through his veins at the blunder. Before Phil could even go anywhere, Dan was next to him.

“We don’t have to climb the tree if you want,” Dan said sheepishly.

“No, I just slipped. I’m fi-i-i-i-ine!” Phil had lost his balance and let go of the tree for a split second. Suddenly, he felt one of Dan’s arms wrap around his torso and his breath in his ear. They stayed frozen in that position for a moment before realizing what they had just done, and Dan quickly but carefully let go of Phil.

“I think I can climb up,” Phil faltered.

“We don’t have to,” Dan quickly interjected.

“I can do it.”

“Okay,” Dan agreed softly. As Phil started to climb higher up the tree, Dan made sure to stay close to him in case he almost fell again. As Phil got higher and higher, he became acutely aware of how far away the ground actually was. It was _really_ far away. Like, so far away that if he fell, he would definitely break a bone. _Again_ , Phil thought, grimacing internally.

“Are you good? We don’t have to go any higher if you don’t want,” Dan offered.

“No, no, I’m fine. I just had some bad experiences with falling from trees when I was a kid. I broke my wrist and haven’t exactly been too enthusiastic about climbing anything since then,” Phil explained.

“Hey, if you don’t—“

“No, really. I’m fine; it was ages ago. Are we close?”

“Yeah, it’s just up a _little_ higher. C’mon!” Dan’s speed increased and he clambered up ahead of Phil. Phil finally managed to get up to where Dan was. They sat next to each other on a branch that had barely any leaves obscuring their vision on the ground and world around them. Dan had his arm behind Phil but was careful not to touch him, and their legs just brushed against each other’s as they dangled over more than fifty feet of open air.

“Phil, look,” Dan whispered, pointing into the distance. It really was beautiful. From this high up, Phil could see…everything. He could see the expanse of the forest; its motley of verdure leaves covered as far as he could see in one direction. When Phil looked back the way they had come, he could see the grey, weathered, stone school, much smaller than it seemed when he was actually on the grounds. It was not as intimidating as it had seemed when he had first arrived. The sky could be seen clearly now, too, but it was still dark and cloudy.

“This is where I like to go when everything seems so much bigger than me,” Dan whispered. “Because here I can see how even the biggest things are small from the right perspective. The school, for example. It’s huge, but from here it looks like I could just squish it.” Dan squinted his eyes and brought his fingers in front of his face and made a pinching motion, pretending to crush the school between his fingers. “And it helps me get perspective on things. Like, when I’ve got all these things happening in my life that I can’t control, up here, I’m bigger than all of it. Nothing can touch me.”

Phil was silent and reveled in Dan’s philosophical words. He did have a point. From this high up, everything _did_ seem so tiny and powerless. Phil felt important; unreachable; untouchable. He felt like he was on top of the world.

“When my house got too out of control when I was younger, I would come up here and pretend to be the king of the world. I would pretend that I was in charge; not my dad; not my mom. Me. Nobody could tell be to study more or go to bed or stop fooling around or sit at the table right and listen. ‘Don’t do this Daniel! Do this! You can’t question me or my authority!’” Dan mocked in a high falsetto. “ _I’m_ in charge up here. But only here.” Dan’s voice broke. Phil’s eyes widened. Was Dan…was he crying? Was he about to cry?

Dan sniffled and wiped his nose. “Phil, what do you feel up here?”

“Scared,” Phil admitted quietly. “But…a kind of good scared. Because yes, I’m really high up and yes, I could fall and die, but…it’s kind of humbling. Anything could happen, you know? I _could_ fall and die, but I probably won’t. And that feels kind of powerful. Because everything always seems to be happening for a reason, and just knowing that right now, I’m on the better end of the stick because I’m alive and I haven’t fallen yet is empowering.”

“I’ve come up here once almost every single week since I was nine and I’ve never thought about it like that,” Dan murmured.

“Sometimes you just need a different perspective.”

“I guess you do.”

Phil saw a cool wind sweep across the forest below and around him, rustling leaves and little animals out of their spots. The wind hit his face and whipped his black hair back from his porcelain skin. Phil closed his eyes and enjoyed the purity of the moment he was in. He was sitting here on the top of the forest with Dan, his incredibly sexy and adorable roommate, feeling a cool breeze caress his face and rustle the leaves around him. Right now, Phil felt pretty damn peaceful and blissed out and nothing was going to change it.

A drop of rain fell the sky and landed on Phil’s head. Another drop fell onto Dan’s arm. Suddenly, the rain droplets started coming down faster and faster.

“Shit, it’s raining!” Dan exclaimed. “Come on, Phil. We’ve got to get back to the dorm.”

“Are you sure we couldn’t stay…?”

“Are you fucking kidding me? Come on, let’s go!” Dan said, clambering down the tree. “C’mon!”

Phil looked nervously at the ground. _It’s so far away._ Carefully, Phil lowered himself from branch to branch, not wanting to slip. He looked down for a moment to see Dan standing on the ground already. Phil’s fingers slipped, suddenly, on a slick branch, and he hastily caught himself, feeling a jolt in his stomach.

“Phil? Are you okay?”

“I-I’m fine!” Phil responded shakily. He continued climbing down the tree, ignoring the rain pouring down from the sky and soaking him. It was a warm rain, though, and Phil couldn’t help but enjoy it a little. It felt good—almost cleansing. But it made it really hard to get down the tree. Right now, Phil was pretty jealous of Dan’s amazing climbing ability. Phil had to pay extra close attention to every move he made to be sure that he wouldn’t slip and fall, so when he finally reached the bottom, it felt like an eternity had passed.

“Finally!” Dan huffed, smiling a little and rolling his eyes. He looked soaked through and his hair hung limp and wet over his face. “Let’s go, quick! We’re going to drown or something, it’s raining so hard.”

Phil smiled and followed Dan as he started running. Dan could really run fast in this rain…and Phil realized that he couldn’t. Especially when the ground was this slippery. All of a sudden, Phil felt his feet slip out from under him and he landed butt-first onto the muddy ground. He groaned in pain. _I think I broke my butt,_ he thought, grimacing. But when Phil looked up, he realized that Dan hadn’t stopped. He probably hadn’t even noticed that Phil wasn’t with him.

“Dan! Daaan!” Phil called, getting up and standing still. “DAAAAAN!”

Still, no one came. Phil tried yelling his name again and again, but he didn’t come. Dan was probably too far ahead at this point to hear him. Phil didn’t know what to do now. He had no idea how to get back, and if he tried, he’d probably end up getting only more lost. His only hope was to stay there and wait for Dan to come back to him. _But what if he didn’t?_ Phil couldn’t help wondering. Nonsense. Of course Dan would come back…right? They were friends now, and friends cared about each other. So while Phil was waiting, he found a rock to sit on near the side of the path.

It was quite hard to ignore the rain. At first, it _had_ been a pretty nice rain. It was warm and kind of refreshing. But that had been before it had gotten so ridiculously strong that Phil couldn’t see in front of him. The trees had become a grey, blurred mess. Dan would _never_ find him at this point. Maybe he was looking for him, though. He had to be!

“DAAAAN!” Phil tried again. _Please,_ please _answer me,_ Phil thought. _Please_.

“Is—PHIL! PHIL, IS THAT YOU?”

Was that Dan?

“DAN!”

“PHIL, WHERE ARE YOU?”

“I’M OVER HERE!”

“WHERE IS THAT?”

“I DON’T KNOW!”

“CAN YOU DESCRIBE IT?”

“I CAN’T SEE ANYTHING! IT’S RAINING _REALLY HARD_ IF YOU HADN’T NOTICED!”

“HOLD ON—ARE YOU—“

Phil felt a hand on his arm and jumped.

“Dan! Oh my god, I thought that I’d be lost forever in here!” Phil gasped.

“Well, I found you,” Dan smirked. “Come on, and don’t get lost this time!” Suddenly, Dan grabbed Phil’s hand and started running. Phil was in such a shock that Dan was freaking _holding his hand_ that he nearly fell over again and was mostly relying on Dan dragging him through the forest to continue moving. Maybe Dan did like boys…? No, no. He didn’t. He couldn’t. It wasn’t _that_ gay to hold his hand, was it? Friends did that, didn’t they? And Dan just didn’t want him to get lost. _But he could have grabbed his arm or something, right_? Well, hands were just easier to hold, Phil decided.

Nonetheless, Phil couldn’t stop a warm feeling from spreading through his body that started in his hand. It made him feel warm and fuzzy. It spread to his stomach and filled it with happy butterflies. It _definitely_ wasn’t meant in a way other that convenience, but Phil was enjoying it in a totally gay way.

When Dan had finally dragged Phil out of the forest, both of them were sweating (not like you could even tell in the rain) and doubled over, breathing heavily and trying not to inhale any water. Dan had his hands on his knees and Phil was leaning on Dan, enjoying himself a little too much.

“We…made…it!” Phil breathed, then started coughing. He was not used to this to this kind of exercise—in fact, the most he ever got was from walking around his house. Dan thumped him on the back and Phil managed to stop.

“Finally!” Dan gasped.

The boys stood there until they caught their breaths, which took quite a few minutes. Phil nearly hacked up a lung and almost passed out, so Dan decided that they had better get back to the dorm.

They started walking back when Phil felt everything get really blurry. Suddenly, the ground rose up fast towards Phil’s head and he had fallen over.

“Phil? Phil, are you okay? Phil?” Dan asked, panicked.

“I—yeah, I’m fine. Just…exhausted.” Phil tried to get up, so Dan grabbed his arm to steady him. Dan let Phil use him as support and wrapped his arm around his shoulders to keep him from falling again.

“Thanks,” Phil managed.

“Don’t talk. I’ve got you.”

Phil practically melted again at what Dan said. _That was so cute, oh my god!_

Dan finally guided them both to the pavement that went around the school, glancing around suspiciously to make sure that nobody could see them. It was unlikely that anyone would be around anyways, as it was raining and there was practically nobody at the school, but it didn’t hurt to be cautious. Dan didn’t want anyone to have the slightest idea that they were friends, let alone roommates. He couldn’t risk anybody thinking that he was gay, as he had heard enough horror stories of students that had gotten bullied—even killed—for it. Practically holding Phil on open grounds was risky, and Dan didn’t like that. They had to get back as fast as they could; especially before the students started coming back.

Phil coughed again, and Dan looked down at him, worried.

“You good? We’re almost back. Just a few minutes longer,” Dan reassured.

Phil nodded. Dan continued guiding him back to the dorm, watching out for anybody that might see him.

Dan heard two voices in the rain.

“Ugh, oh my _god_ , Lily. My hair is _frizzy!_ ”

“Jesus Christ, Avery! Look at my _shoes_! I literally _just_ got them this weekend and now they’re _ruined_!”

“I hate rain! I wish I was back at my Dad’s island. It, like, never rains there.”

Dan quickly assessed the situation they were in. Their building, building B, was just around the corner. If Phil could just run a little bit, they wouldn’t be seen.

“Phil,” Dan whispered into Phil’s ear, “I need you to run. Just down the path and into the building, okay?”

“Yeah, okay.”

They started running as silently yet fast as possible, taking care not to splash too loudly. Dan practically pushed Phil into their building and down the hall into the lift, pressing the button for the second floor, letting the door close behind them. They were silent all the way up the lift and to the dorm room, until the door shut behind them. Dan locked it.

“That was close,” Phil said.

Dan and Phil started laughing. Their day had been fun, but it had quickly gotten stressful, and they needed the release. Phil felt very satisfied, however. He had been able to spend his time with Dan in a good way, where both of them had enjoyed it, and he felt happy. He might have been dangerously exhausted, but it had been fun. He loved what had happened today. Dare he say it could have been the best day in his life?

Dan started stripping his wet clothes off, shivering as he went. Phil really  just wanted to go over there and hug him and kiss him and that _chest_ —oh, shush, Phil reprimanded himself. Phil realized, though, that he, too, was wet and freezing, so he changed into something much more comfortable—a t-shirt and some boxers. He took care not to look at Dan anymore, lest his very gay and very uncontrollable, unable-to-be-acted-upon thoughts return. And as he was exhausted, Phil got under the warm, soft covers of his bed, uncaring of the time (though his bedside clock said 4:08).

“Phil? You’re okay, right? What happened?” Dan asked. Phil looked over at him to see him sitting on his bed in only boxers. _Jesus Christ, really? How much sexier could this day get?_

“I’m fine. I practically never exercise and then I sprinted, like, a mile or something in the rain,” Phil said.

“Oh. Well, get some rest, then. You need it. I’ll bring you some dinner up here.”

“Don’t steal it,” Phil murmured as he shut his eyes. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I hope y'all like what I have so far... ^_^  
> You can follow my writing blog on tumblr, snowwhitewrites.tumblr.com for updates!


	7. Chapter 7

Monday mornings are absolutely the worst, most terrible things in existence. And for Phil Lester, on this particular morning, it was much worse than usual. Given yesterday’s events of a mile walk followed by a climb up a ridiculously tall tree and then a mile sprint back in the rain, Phil, who didn’t get nearly enough exercise, was sore and exhausted. His arms ached, his stomach was sore, and he could barely move his legs. Now he was supposed to get on with his day normally, pretending that despite the ridiculous amount of exercise he had done, it hadn’t possibly been the best day in his life. Phil was supposed to go to classes and absorb information, acting as if he and Dan Howell hadn’t spent their Sunday together.

Before he opened his door to go down to breakfast, Dan grabbed Phil’s wrist to stop him.

“Remember—we are not friends during the week. You do not know me and we aren’t roommates. Got it?” Dan reminded.

Phil nodded. He was feeling quite grumpy, as it was morning, and just wanted to go downstairs and get his coffee. But he just couldn’t ignore how it felt to have Dan’s hand encircling his wrist, even though it was _completely platonic_ , of course. Platonic. Phil hadn’t liked that word very much since he had met Dan. He didn’t want Dan’s actions towards him to be platonic. He wanted them to be completely romantic and sexual. But alas, Dan was straight. _Beggars can’t be choosers,_ Phil remembered his Dad saying. At least Dan was touching him _somehow_ , right?

Phil arrived at the cafeteria in a sleepy stupor, stumbling and tripping over his own feet as the mass of students pushed him this way and that way. After getting some cereal and coffee, Phil quickly located Chris and PJ and sat down with them; however, the two boys were facing each other, deep in conversation, and didn’t seem to notice Phil.

“—You said you mum wouldn’t be there!” Chris exclaimed.

“Because I thought she wouldn’t be!” retaliated PJ.

“Well, good luck explaining to her why you were—“

“Stop it.”

“On your knees—“

“Chris, shut up!”

“—with your mouth on my—“

 “Not here, Chris!”

“Oh, somewhere else, then?”

“Preferably nowhere,” PJ grumbled.

“Preferably our bedroom,” Chris murmured into PJ’s ear, leaning over and seeing Phil over PJ’s shoulder.

“Phil! Hey, didn’t see you there!” Chris said.

PJ’s eyes widened and a light blush spread across his cheeks as he turned around to face Phil. “Oh my god, Phil. How much did you hear?”

“Not much,” he chuckled.

“Jesus Christ,” PJ muttered, face-palming.

“So, Phil,” started Chris, “You know how I told you PJ’s parents were going to be out this weekend? Turns out, it wasn’t _all_ weekend, just Saturday. So, Peej and I were in the middle of—“

“ _Chris! How many times do I have to tell you to stop telling people about our sex life_?” PJ exclaimed quietly, so as not to be heard by anybody else.

“I’m just bragging because I’m so proud that you’re mine,” Chris whispered jokingly seductively in PJ’s ear.

“Well, I’m not going to be if you keep doing that.”

“You love me,” said Chris, beaming smugly.

“For some strange reason,” PJ muttered under his breath.

Phil couldn’t help but admire their relationship. He wished that he could have such a wonderful bond with someone, and he knew exactly who that someone was. Phil felt miserable  when he thought of how he couldn’t like him back.

“So, mate, what’d you do this weekend?” Chris asked Phil, clapping him on the back.

“Uh, nothing. Just laid around and finished homework,” Phil lied. Well, he didn’t lie completely—just left out some parts. Like, most of the actual weekend.

“That’s no fun! You should come join Peej and I when we—“

“ _Chris_ —“

“—go out next weekend!”

“Oh, no. I wouldn’t want to bother you,” Phil said.

“No, really! We can’t have you moping around here while we’re out having fun,” Chris said.

“Phil, you should come with us. We can go explore the woods around the school if you want to stay here, even. I couldn’t stand knowing that you were here stuck with _Dan_ all weekend,” PJ insisted, saying Dan’s name like it was poison.

“Oh, no. I couldn’t. It’s not that terrible here,” Phil laughed falsely.

“Really, Phil. We can stay here if you don’t want to leave,” Chris said.

“No, I couldn’t do that to you guys. Go spend your weekends with each other! Have fun, don’t worry about me,” Phil told them. There was no way that anybody, even PJ and Chris, would be keeping him from being with Dan. Despite how he had acted at first, Dan was really a wonderful person. And now Phil knew that Dan had only been so mean to hold up his reputation and protect himself. Phil still wasn’t exactly sure why, but if Dan wanted to be friends with him on only the weekends, then Phil was going to be his friend on the weekends. Nobody was going to stop him.

“Oh, let up, Chris. It is only Monday. We can figure this out later. Plus, look at the time! Class starts in three minutes!” PJ exclaimed.

“Shit,” Chris muttered.

“Oh no, are we gonna be late?” asked Phil worriedly.

“Not if we hurry,” muttered PJ. Looking around, Phil realized that the cafeteria’s population had definitely decreased.

The boys leapt up from their seats, not bothering to throw away the remnants of their breakfasts—the janitors would clean it up—and grabbed their bags, running down the hall so that they wouldn’t get on Mr. Adams’ bad side. All three of them were pretty good at English, but they all greatly appreciated his appearance and didn’t want him to think badly of them. They sprinted down the halls which got emptier and emptier by the second, uncaring of the occasional shout of a teacher telling them not to run in the school. They slipped and slid on the newly waxed Monday floors until they got outside their classroom. All three were panting heavily, but wasted not a moment before opening the door and walking in.

“Boys! Why are you late?” Mr. Adams yelled.

“So, we—“ Chris started, about to fabricate an excuse.

“We don’t have an excuse,” PJ interrupted, shooting a glare at Chris.

“Oh, I’m sure you do. Care to continue, Chris?” Mr. Adams said coolly.

“We got distracted and came in late,” Chris mumbled.

“Well, that’s not going to happen again. Detention, all three of you.”

“What?!” Chris exclaimed, “That’s not fair! It was only a few minutes and it was right after breakfast!”

“The rest of the class got here on time,” Mr. Adams noted.

 Chris glared.

“You three, sit down and see me after class,” Mr. Adams ordered.

PJ, Chris, and Phil walked dejectedly back to their seats, Chris with an ugly glare on his face. Richard and a few of his annoying friends sneered and made little jokes about them, but they were able to ignore it.

The rest of the class passed quite slowly. Phil felt incredibly embarrassed. He couldn’t stop replaying their entrance to the classroom and Mr. Adams sentencing them to detention. Each time, he felt a little bit worse until he felt sick to his stomach. Phil tried to calm himself down, reminding himself that no one cared. He tried his best to ignore Richard making additional sly little comments about him being gay (Phil was _so_ glad that that Richard didn’t actually know that he was) during the class. By the time the bell rang, Phil was just about ready to run out of the place. All he had to do was talk to the teacher and he could get out.

“You’re dismissed!” Mr. Adams announced to the class. “Except you three! Get over here.”

While the rest of the class left, Phil, Chris, and PJ walked up to Mr. Adams’ desk at the front of the room.

“I’ve got a free period next, so this can take as long as I want it to. Care to explain why you were late?” Mr. Adams asked.

“We were talking in the cafeteria and didn’t realize the time,” PJ said.

“Well. You’re going to pay more attention in the future, aren’t you? All three of you have detention for an hour today after school’s over. Got it? The detention room is in Mrs. Crisfield’s room this year. You aren’t allowed to do homework, so I suggest that you get it done before you come in.”

“Sir, if you don’t mind me asking…um, why are we getting a detention if we’re only three minutes late?” Phil squeaked.

“Mr. Lester!” Mr. Adams exclaimed in false surprise, voice dripping with sarcasm. “Why, weren’t you listening in the beginning of the year? I explained that _thoroughly_. Or were you too distracted talking to your friends over here?”

“Oh,” Phil mumbled.

“Now you know,” Mr. Adams said, checking his clock. “You’d better get to you next classes. Here are some passes.” He ripped a few slips of paper of a pad and handed one to each of them. “Get going.”

Phil, Chris, and PJ scrambled out of the classroom, down the hall, and into their next respective classes. Phil walked into the classroom and handed the pass to the teacher, feeling his face heat with all the eyes staring at him. He slid into his seat and opened his book to the same page the person next to him had hers on. The class passed eventually, and the next. Now was biology. Dan was in this class, and honestly, Phil was a bit scared and nervous about how he and Dan were going to act around each other.

Phil walked in early, not wanting to upset this teacher, too. He sat down in his seat in the back. The rest of the class filled in, but Dan still hadn’t entered. Ms. Henley walked to the front of the classroom, clapping her hands together.

“Alright! So, we’ve got a lot to cover today. You’re going to be taking notes, and then—hey, has anybody seen Dan?” she stopped suddenly, looking at his empty seat.

Suddenly, the door banged open and Dan walked in, sitting in his seat next to that _girl_.

“Oh! There you are!” Ms. Henley said. “Okay, so today we’re going to be examining the basic anatomy of…” She pulled up a PowerPoint and Phil scribbled down detailed notes as she lectured them. She then gave them some time to finish their homework while she graded some papers at the end of class. Phil glanced up to check the clock, and he noticed that damned _girl_ getting closer and closer to Dan. She scooted her chair over to Dan, leaning in towards him. He glared at her for a moment, shaking his head, and she pouted, much like the first day in this class. However, this time she didn’t listen to Dan. Instead of stopping, she leaned in farther. Suddenly, her mouth met his. _In the middle of biology class_.

Phil stared, eyes wide, at the two of them. The girl moved her hand onto his leg and Phil felt sick. Ms. Henley looked up for a split second and caught Dan and the girl lip-locked.

“Dan! Lily! What is going on?” She exclaimed.

The girl, Lily, quickly pulled away from Dan, spluttering. “We—uh, I didn’t—“

“The two of you! Detention! See me after class. Really? Is that _really_ necessary? In the middle of biology class! Oh, for heaven’s sake,” shrieked Ms. Henley. “You couldn’t have waited _ten minutes_! Dear lord, you teenagers. I was _never_ this bad when I was a girl. Nobody was! You teenagers think you’re _so_ important that you go making out in my class! Disgusting! In _class_!”

Lily’s face was bright pink and Dan was silent, jaw clenched. Ms. Henley went back to grading her papers with a scowl, looking up at Dan and Lily every few moments until class ended. Phil rushed out and hurried down to lunch to tell Chris and PJ what had happened. But they weren’t there—not yet, at least. Phil sat in his usual spot at their table and waited, looking around. Where were they? Phil glanced over to the doors to the cafeteria as Dan and Lily walked in, staying far apart from each other. Dan had a constant glower on his face, and he walked with his hands in his pockets looking at his feet. Phil peeled his glance away to look for Chris and PJ. He was worried about them.

As Phil scanned over the room, he realized something dreadful—Richard and his cronies weren’t there. If they weren’t there and neither were Chris and PJ, Phil was terrified of what could be happening at this very moment. He got up and walked out of the cafeteria, looking worriedly around the halls and straining his ears.

Then he heard it. A low, angry voice, coming from somewhere Phil couldn’t quite place. _Oh god. Oh god_ , he thought. Then, Phil heard a thud and a groan. “ _Shit, shit, shit,”_ Phil whispered, running towards the back of the school where the sound was coming from. He stopped in front of an antique tapestry that covered part of the wall. The sound seemed to be coming from…behind the wall?

Nervously, Phil checked his surroundings to make sure that nobody else was in the hall, and lifted the corner. It concealed a door! It was small, only five feet tall, and made of a dark wood. Phil could hear grunts coming from the other side. Maybe it was just PJ and Chris…? But then Phil heard a voice that sounded like neither Chris nor PJ, so he opened the door. Inside was a sight he doubted he would ever forget.

Everyone stopped what they were doing when they heard the door creak open. Richard, blond hair plastered to his face with sweat, and several burly boys stood, fists clenched, over Chris and PJ. They were laying on the floor, blood smeared on their faces. The room all of them were in was quite small—maybe ten by twelve feet?—and made completely of stone excluding an ancient, dirty carpet on the floor. Richard had his huge foot lodged in PJ’s side, and all the inhabitants of the room were breathing heavily.

Phil’s eyes were wide as he tried to take in what he was seeing.

“Close that door,” Richard commanded.

“Why?” Phil asked shakily. He was terrified.

“Because I _told you to_!” Richard growled. One of the boys in the room started advancing towards Phil and he quickly shut it, afraid of what might happen to him if he didn’t.

“Okay. This never happened. If you tell anybody, I will find you and I will _skin_ you. You take these disgusting faggots out of here and don’t _any_ of you _dare_ mention this to a single person,” Richard commanded in a scarily calm and quiet voice.

Phil nodded quickly. He quickly squatted down next to PJ and Chris.

“Come on. We’re leaving,” Richard muttered, taking his foot off PJ’s side and making PJ gasp loudly. They left, closing the door behind them.

“Oh my god! Oh my god!” Phil cried hysterically once Richard and his cronies left. “Oh my god, what happened? Is anything broken? What’s hurt?”

“Everything hurts,” croaked PJ who was laying limp on the floor.

“Can you sit up?” Phil asked them worriedly.

“I-I think…yeah,” PJ groaned, heaving himself up on his elbows. Chris grunted as he did the same.

“Holy _shit_ ,” Phil muttered under his breath. “What _happened_?”

“Peej and I…we came in here during fourth period, to, you know, make out or something. I’d found this room _ages_ ago and didn’t think anybody knew about it,” Chris winced as he shifted his weight. “We were up against the wall getting…pretty into it. Then suddenly the door busts open and Rich and his gits come in laughing and talking loudly and—they froze. We froze.”

“And they attacked us,” PJ finished.

“Oh my god,” Phil whispered again, still in shock from what he had seen. “Do either of you think anything is broken or sprained? How bad are you feeling?”

“Nothing’s broken. It was just a few punches and kicks and they’d just gotten us on the floor before you came,” PJ explained.

“Nothing’s broken?” Phil confirmed with Chris, who nodded. “Good. Okay. Do you wanna go to the infirmary, or—“

“NO!” Chris and PJ shouted at the same time.

“No infirmary. Let’s just go to the bathroom and get ourselves cleaned up, shall we?” Chris suggested.

~

They had limped their way, Phil supporting both of them, up five flights of stairs and into the rarely used boy’s bathroom on the fifth floor without seeing anybody. Phil had lugged a trashcan in front of the door to keep it from opening. PJ was laid on the counter next to the sinks, shirt off, while Chris dabbed his bruised and cut body with a damp paper towel, groaning or crying out in pain every once in a while. The three of them would be missing sixth period, but they already had a detention—it couldn’t get much worse.

Phil snuck to the nurse’s ward with a faked stomachache and shoved some bandages into his pockets when the nurse went to attend to another student. She released him quickly, saying that he didn’t seem sick at all, and he left, trying not to smile at his own cleverness.

“I’ve got the bandages,” Phil announced, brandishing them, as he walked back into the bathroom. He blushed at the sight he saw. PJ was still lying on the counter, but now Chris was leaning over him and they were kissing intensely, PJ moaning breathily. They stopped and looked up at Phil once they realized he was in the room.

“Ah, good,” Chris said, hobbling over to Phil and snatching them out of his hands before attending to himself and PJ.

By the time they had gotten themselves cleaned up, it was time for their next classes. Phil had quite a hard time concentrating. All he could think about was PJ, Chris, Richard, Dan, and the detention. It struck him that he hadn’t told them about what he had gone to tell them in the first place, about Dan and Lily. Well, they’d be figuring it out soon. Phil trudged his way through his seventh period art class, not paying the least attention to his teacher or his project.

Phil’s last period of the day was a free period, and he heeded Mr. Adams’ warning and got as much homework as he could finished. He was quite distracted but scribbled his way through papers and worksheets, not caring if the answers were right, just caring if they were done. The last bell sounded through the halls just as Phil scrawled a random number to finish his math homework. The timing was absolutely perfect.

The map that had been given to Phil on the first day proved incredibly useful, as Phil has absolutely no idea where Mrs. Crisfield’s room was.  It ended up being on the fourth floor in the middle of eleventh year classrooms. After accidentally opening a few wrong doors, Phil opened the right one and stepped into a room with a grumpy looking teacher standing in the front. Phil spotted Chris and PJ sitting next to each other in the back and started over to them.

“Excuse me? Who’re you?” asked Mrs. Crisfield.

“Phil Lester,” said Phil.

“Phil Lester…Phil Lester…” she said under her breath, scanning her eyes along a clipboard in her hands. “Ah, yes. Here you are. You were late to your class?”

“Yes.”

“That’s fine. You can go ahead and take a seat while we wait for the others to show up.”

Phil sat down next to PJ. “You alright, mate?” He whispered.

PJ nodded. “Just really sore is all. I should heal up fine.”

“And you?” Phil asked Chris.

“I’m fine. Peej here got the worst of it,” Chris explained quietly so that Mrs. Crisfield wouldn’t hear. She seemed quite distracted already, sat at her desk, eyes glued to the computer.

Suddenly, the door opened. The three of them looked up, Chris and PJ looking shocked while Phil had an array of emotions displayed on his face that ranged from annoyed to smug to maybe lust a _little bit_ jealous. Or a lot jealous.

It was Dan, with Lily practically drooling over him, draped over his arm. He looked displeased, but Lily seemed to be oblivious to it. Her long auburn hair swished behind her as she walked confidently towards Mrs. Crisfield, peeling herself away from Dan for a split second while he went to sit down.

“Um, excuse me? Mrs. Crisfield? I don’t think I should be here.  I don’t _belong_ in detention with these nerds,” she motioned towards Chris, PJ, and Phil, “and neither does Dan.”

“Well then, that’s just too bad for you. What’s your name, hun?”

“Lily.”

“ _Well_ , Lily. Let’s see what you’re in here for.” Mrs. Crisfield scanned her clipboard again. “Ah…sexual activity during class? I think you do belong in here.”

“Oh my god!” Lily shrieked. “It wasn’t _sexual activity_! Ugh. This is _so_ unfair.” She huffed and sat down in the middle of the room next to Dan, who scowled more intensely.

“Is he that grumpy all the time?” Chris asked Phil discreetly.

Phil shook his head discreetly.

“So! Detention!” Mrs. Crisfield said, rubbing her hands together. “It’s a small gathering today which is great, because I’ve got some work to do. I don’t want to be here and neither do you. None of you seem like real troublemakers, so I’m going to be out and about. The janitors clean this hallway right now, though, so they can and will report anything if they hear it. Got it?”

Phil looked at Chris and PJ with an incredulous expression which was met by two similarly equally puzzled expressions. She was just…leaving them? But then Mrs. Crisfield opened the door to the hall. “I’ll be back in fifteen minutes. No shenanigans,” she warned, leaving. The sound of her shoes click-clacking down the hall was listened to closely before no one could hear it any longer. She was gone.

“What are we supposed to do?” Chris asked rather loudly.

“You could just make out with your stupid boyfriend, faggot,” Lily sneered.

“Excuse you?” Chris growled.

“You heard me.”

“That I did, and I am going to fucking—“

“Chris, cut it out,” PJ interrupted.

Chris slumped down in his chair and rolled his eyes at PJ.

“Taking orders from your boyfriend?” Lily continued. Dan glared at her.

“Lily, cut the shit,” Dan said.

“Oh, so you think you can tell me what to do?”

“Yeah, I do. Stop fucking _bothering_ everybody all the time.”

“You are so rude!” Lily retaliated.

Dan looked at her with an incredulous expression. “And you’re not?”

“No, I’m _not_! My dad is going to hear about this, and he’ll—“

“He’ll what, sue us? I don’t know if you knew this or not, Lily, but my family _owns_ this hell.”

Lily opened her mouth but no words came out, so she was left opening and closing it like a fish. Chris and PJ looked at each other incredulously, unable to comprehend why Dan was defending them. For the life of him, even Phil couldn’t quite figure it out. Was Dan trying to be a better person? Phil certainly hoped so. He wanted the world to see the _real_ Dan Howell, the one that helped others. Phil wanted Dan to get rid of his mean and moody façade, and he was really glad that Dan was starting to shed it.

No one was quite sure what to do as the detention period wore on. Dan looked at his feet, glaring at Lily every few moments. Chris and PJ could barely keep their hands off of each other, and Lily looked angry. Phil was looking around at each person in the room, but when his eyes reached Dan, he had trouble peeling his eyes away from him. Dan, with that soft, brown fringe. Dan, whose long fingers were tapping on the desk—thrum, thrum, thrum. Dan, with the tall, beautiful body. Dan, who, it looked like, had a pretty large— _NOT HERE!_ Phil yelled internally as his eyes travelled lower. Not in detention. That was just wrong.

“What’s your favorite color?” Phil blurted suddenly to nobody in particular, trying to keep his mind empty of that kind of thoughts that he often found himself thinking around Dan.

“Black,” said Dan.

“Blue,” PJ said at the same time as Chris, who said, “Green.”

“Fuchsia,” Lily pouted.

“Why?” asked Chris.

“Oh, I dunno,” Phil responded. “Just wondering, I guess.”

“Favorite band?” Chris asked.

“Muse!” Dan and Phil said at the same time, exchanging little grins.

“You both like Muse?” PJ asked.

“Yeah! They’re amazing,” gushed Phil. Dan nodded in agreement.

“Favorite album, then?” Chris continued.

“Origin of Symmetry!” both Dan and Phil said unanimously.

“No way!” Phil gasped. “That’s just creepy.”

“I like Taylor Swift!” Lily yelled, eager to be included in a conversation, no matter whose it was.

“Nobody asked you,” Dan shot at her.

Lily slumped in her seat, arms folded. “At least I like _good_ music.”

“All music is good music, it just depends on who’s listening to it,” PJ said.

“Well, mine is better.” Lily seemed determined to be the best.

“Sure,” PJ dismissed. He wasn’t in the mood to get in an argument right now.

“When do you think Mrs. Crisfield’s going to be back?” asked Phil. “She’s been gone for a little while now.”

“I dunno. We’ve still got fifteen minutes left,” PJ said, looking at the clock.

“Hmph. I want to leave!” yelled Lily. “I don’t deserve to be here!”

“Yes, you do,” Dan snapped.

“No, I—“

“You fucking made out with me in the middle of biology!”

“ _God,_ you’re being so _mean_!”

“You know what? If you want to leave so much, then fucking go ahead,” Dan yelled at her.

“Fine!” Lily sprung out of her chair, grabbed her backpack, and left the room, slamming the door. A few seconds later, the four boys heard muffled and outraged outside the classroom. The door opened again, and now Lily was followed by a cross Mrs. Crisfield.

“You four,” Mrs. Crisfield said, pointing at Dan, Chris, PJ, and Phil. “Out. Now. You’re dismissed. But _you_ , young lady, are staying here.”

The four boys got up and left before she could change her mind, escaping back into their respective dorm rooms. 


	8. Chapter 8

**Warning: mentions of blood and alcohol**

Dan slammed the door behind himself and Phil as they entered their room, out of breath from sprinting down the halls (just because they could).

"I can't _believe_ that girl!" Dan yelled. "I've told her a _million_ fucking times to _stop_ , but she _won't_! You'd think she'd get the message by now, but--urgh!"

"Are you okay?" Phil asked hesitantly.

"I'm fine!" Dan yelled, pacing the room. He didn't look fine. His face was red with annoyance and frustration. "I can't _believe_ the _nerve_ of that girl! She's just so....She fucking made out with me in the middle of class! _In the middle of class!_ She couldn't have waited, oh, I don't know, _ten minutes_ for it to be over if she couldn't control herself?!"

Phil sat down on his bed, watching Dan walking around the room and ranting about how annoying Lily was and how she needed to get a grip and go chase after somebody else. It was quite relieving, actually. Phil now knew that Dan and Lily weren't together as much as Lily would like it otherwise. He was _very_ relieved.

Dan flopped face onto his bed, face first, and banged his head against the pillow.

“Dan…do you…do you want anything? D’you want, like…uh…”

“ _What? Is? Her? Problem?!”_ Dan shouted.

“How about…let’s go for a walk, Dan.”

Dan rolled over and glared at Phil. “We _can’t_. It’s not the weekend yet,” he said matter-of-factly.

“Well, you can’t just sit here yelling for the rest of the day.”

“I can if I want to,” Dan mumbled into his pillow. Which, Phil had to admit, was kind of freaking adorable.

“How about we play a board game?” Phil suggested suddenly.

“W- _What_?” Dan spluttered, sitting up. “There is a _board game_ in this room?”

“Yeah, I brought one. My, uh, mum made me…” Phil trailed off, blushing a little. His mother had insisted that he had to bring it, since it had been his favorite game as a child. His mum thought that it still was, and wouldn’t let him leave it. In all honesty, Phil certainly still did like it. He crouched down and reached under his bed, dragging out Checkers.

“You brought _checkers_?”

“Hey, it’s fun!” Phil exclaimed, indignant.

“Sure. If you’re a _nerd_.”

“Hey! I am not a nerd.”

“Nerd,” Dan snickered.

“Say that again and I’ll—“

“Nerd!”

“I’ll get you for that!” Phil cried, putting the checkers down on his bed and grabbing a pillow. He proceeded to run towards Dan and swing at him, hitting him square in the head. He laughed one loud, “HA!” before getting caught by surprise and knocked over by Dan’s pillow. Phil jumped up and defended himself from getting pummeled from above, his force pushing Dan backwards onto the bed. Dan rolled out from under Phil, giggling, causing Phil’s pillow to hit only Dan’s bed. Dan went up around him and whacked him from the back, Phil squealing and crouching over. Dan managed to smack Phil with the pillow on the back quite a few times before Phil was able to knock Dan’s feet out from under him at his low vantage point. Dan fell to the floor and on top of Phil, which Phil hadn’t planned for and his breath was knocked out of his lungs. Dan jumped back up and Phil lay on the floor for a few moments, not moving.

“Phil? Are you—“

Phil jumped up and knocked Dan down onto his bed with a forceful yet squishy hit, and Dan screamed playfully. Phil raised his pillow above his head, about to wallop Dan again.

“Don’t you fucking _dare_!” Dan shrieked, smiling hugely.

“Oh, gosh, sorry, Dan,” Phil said, smirking. “I totally wasn’t going to—“ He brought the pillow down and whacked Dan with it. In unconscious self-defense, Dan kicked his leg out and knocked Phil off balance, whose knees buckled. He fell in an awkward position—his head on Dan’s thighs, _really_   close to his crotch. _Holy shit, this is hot_ , was Phil’s only thought. They froze for a second before Phil came to his senses and realized that this probably wasn’t the best position and scrambled back so that he was standing.

“I—uh, sorry—“

“I didn’t mean to—“ they said simultaneously.

“Now I’m _really_ going to get you,” Dan murmured, jumping up to his feet so that he was standing on the bed and towered over Phil. He brought the pillow down hard, expecting to hit Phil on the head, but Phil dove between Dan’s legs and Dan only managed to hit Phil’s butt. Dan blushed brightly and Phil laughed.

“You can’t catch me!” yelled Phil playfully from behind Dan.

“Oh?” Dan asked, grinning slyly and spinning around. He whacked Phil’s side, and by the time he was done, Phil was laying on Dan’s bed against the wall, crouched in a fetal position, laughing so hard he thought that his sides would split. Dan was laughing too, and collapsed on top on Phil in a fit of giggles. Dan lay draped over Phil and the two of them were laughing hysterically. They didn’t move until their laughter died down, and even then, when the two exchanged a glance, they started up again. It seemed like ages until they had finally stopped laughing, just looking at each other with gleeful smiles on their faces. Dan scooted off of Phil and they both sat up, cross-legged on Dan’s bed.

“Feeling better?” Phil grinned.

“Much better,” Dan smiled. “I couldn’t care less about that bitch.” Dan suddenly leaned over and laid his head in Phil’s lap, still grinning up at him. Phil jumped for a split second, realizing what had happened. _Holy freaking shit,_ Phil thought. _Dan is_ laying _on me!_ Phil’s thoughts started racing behind his smile. Was this something friends did? Dan doing this was _completely_ platonic, right? _Right_? Phil saw girls do this all the time, so he figured that this was simply something that friends did. But it was also something that he saw Chris and PJ do. They were much more than friends. What was Dan doing?

“I haven’t had this much fun in…forever,” Dan murmured, his smile slowly fading into an expression that looked more serious. “I couldn’t ever have pillow fights in my house. My parents said it promoted violence or something. And anyways, it wasn’t like I had anybody to do it with.” Dan started frowning. “Nobody wanted to be friends with _me_. I’m so stupid and weird, you know?”

“No, I don’t know,” said Phil.

Dan stared into Phil’s eyes. “What?” he asked.

“No, I don’t know,” Phil repeated. “You’re not stupid _or_ weird. You’re…” Phil searched for a platonic term that he could use…something that didn’t seem too weird to call a friend. “You’re awesome,” Phil decided on. Dan _was_ awesome.

“I’m awesome?” Dan mumbled shyly, smiling again.

“Super awesome,” Phil murmured.

“Thank you,” Dan said, sitting up and wrapping his arms around Phil in a hug.

Phil could barely contain himself. Dan was freaking hugging him! It didn’t even matter whether this was platonic or not. _Dan was hugging him_. He was close; his head was next to Phil’s. Phil hugged back.

When they finally pulled apart, Phil didn’t know what to say or do. Neither did Dan, apparently, because he was shifting around awkwardly, rubbing his one arm.

“Um…sorry about that,” Dan muttered.

“No, no, don’t be sorry! I don’t mind.” He paused, looking at his bedside clock. “Hey, Dan. We have an hour until dinner. Do you—“

He was cut off by a sharp knocking at his door. Who on _earth_ could that be?

“Um. I’ll get it?” Phil offered, shooting a confused glance at Dan, who shrugged. Neither of them had any idea who it could be. The knocking resumed again, several sharp, urgent knocks. Phil jumped off the bed and opened the door cautiously. Chris and PJ stood in the doorway.

“Do you guys need anything…?” Phil trailed off, confused as to why they were there.

“Yeah, um. Do you have any more plasters?” Chris asked.

“Do I…Oh god, what happened?”

“Uh…” Chris glanced cautiously down the hallway. “Can we come in?”

“Oh! Yeah, sorry. Come in.” Phil ushered the two boys in and Chris closed the door behind them.

“What are they doing here?” Dan asked, confused.

“I don’t know,” Phil answered, looking at Chris and PJ, waiting for them to explain.

“We wanted to know if you have any more plasters or something,” said PJ weakly.

“Peej, are you okay?” Phil asked.

“Sort of?” PJ said, making his answer into more of a question.

“What happened?” Phil asked them again, more sternly this time.

“Just…do you have anything we could use to patch up a cut?” Chris asked, impatiently.

“Yeah,” Dan cut in from the other side of the room.

“ _You_ do?” Chris asked him in disbelief.

“Yeah,” he said again, getting up and reaching under his bed. He pulled out the first aid kit that he had used on Phil when he had been injured. “What happened?” he asked, walking across the room to hand it to them.

“Nothing.”

“No, something happened.” Dan firmly insisted.

“He—we—uh, fell?” PJ answered.

“Oh? Because Phil ‘fell’, too. Why don’t you tell me what really happened?”

At the mention of Phil’s ‘falling’, Chris and PJ looked at him in unison with the same worried look. Receiving their gaze, Phil stared at Dan with an expression that said, ‘why did you have to mention that?’.

“Okay, what the _fuck_ happened?” Dan asked loudly. “What _actually_ happened?”

Chris, Phil, and PJ all looked at each other worriedly.

“If none of you are going to tell me, I’m going to have to figure it out on my own.”

“N-no! Dan, it’s not important—“ Phil started.

“ _I_ think it’s pretty fucking important!”

Everybody was silent for a moment.

“Richard,” Phil mumbled, nearly inaudibly.

“What?”

“It was Richard. Him and his stupid ‘friends’,” Phil said, a little bit louder.

Dan face softened immediately as he looked at the three of them, all of which still had some sort of visible (even if only slightly) injury. “You were…beaten up?”

The three of them nodded.

“Oh my god,” Dan said. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry.” He paused, his face hardening again. “He is going to _get it_! That dick isn’t going to be able to _fucking breathe_! I’m going to break every bone in his body!”

Chris, Phil, and PJ looked at each other, confused. Why was Dan acting so protective all of a sudden?

“Dan, you don’t have to,” Phil said.

Dan didn’t seem to think that. “I don’t _have to_? I think I fucking _do_.”

“Please don’t do anything stupid,” Phil warned.

The three of them suddenly heard a sharp intake of breath from pain from PJ in the back of the room.

“Let’s get you fixed up,” said Dan, softening again, walking over to PJ. “Here, sit down.” PJ sat down on Phil’s bed and Dan opened up the first-aid kit. “So, what _exactly_ happened?”

PJ glanced at Chris. “We, uh, snuck out of class and…Richard and his little posse…found us and attacked.” Phil noticed that he left out a lot of what actually occurred.

“Jesus Christ. What’d he do?”

“A few punches and then we got knocked to the floor. Phil found us just in time though, it was a miracle. I don’t know what might have happened if he hadn’t shown up.”

Dan looked at Phil with a strange mixture of pride and confusion.

“Okay, so what d’you need the plasters for?” Dan asked.

“Um,” PJ started. Chris walked over closer and sat down next to him. “Well, uh. I’ll just show you.”

PJ slowly lifted off his shirt, exposing his torso that was inexpertly wrapped in the bandages Phil had stolen from the nurse’s office. There was a spot on them in which he had bled through; it wasn’t big, but it was still there. “It’s not bad, but I just wanted to see if you had any more plasters.”

“Do you mind if I, like…change it?” Dan asked hesitantly.

“No, no, go ahead.”

Dan’s oddly skilled hands slowly unwrapped the bandages off of PJ’s body, with Chris slowly and seemingly unconsciously getting closer to PJ every time PJ winced or even showed the slightest bit of pain, until Dan finally paused and looked at him a bit strangely. Chris scooted away slowly. When Dan had finally completely unwrapped PJ’s bandages, he took a step back to see what he was working with. PJ wasn’t terribly bruised, however, there was some dried blood in spots. Phil figured that they had cleaned PJ up pretty well during sixth period.

Dan went on the clean and then re-bandage PJ with strange expertise. Phil couldn’t help but to wonder why Dan seemed to know what he was doing so well when it came to injuries. Dan had obviously had experience…why? What had happened that he knew how to do this so well?

“Well, that’s all I can really do. It should heal quickly,” Dan announced when he was done. “Are you okay, Chris?”

“I’m fine,” Chris said. “Uh, thanks. For…helping. See you around.”

He and PJ got up.

“Thanks, Dan,” PJ said with a little wave before walking out the door behind Chris.

When the door had closed behind the two, Dan sighed and walked over to Phil’s bed and sat down, patting the spot next to him in a motion to come over to him and take a seat. Phil complied shyly, unsure of what Dan’s reaction would be now that they were alone.

“I’m sorry, Phil. I’m sorry if I was harsh. I didn’t have _any_ idea that Richard could be doing that. Jesus Christ. I mean, I knew he was bad, yeah? He’s always saying things and…I just never thought that he’d go that far—to get actually violent,” Dan said.

“It’s fine,” said Phil quietly.

“No, it’s not. I’m going to fucking kill him. What did he do? Can you tell me? I understand if you don’t trust me…I didn’t exactly treat you the best...but I’d like to know.”

Phil took and deep breath and exhaled slowly, wondering what he should tell Dan. Phil really _wanted_ to tell Dan everything, but he wasn’t sure if he should.

“Well…let’s start from the beginning, I guess.” He paused. “So, I met Chris and PJ the day before school started, at dinner. Turned out that we all had first period together with Mr. Adams, so on the first day, we went in together. Richard…he said…some things, not very nice things, before class had started, to all of us. Mostly me, since, you know, I’m new and all. I honestly didn’t think too much of it—I’ve had to deal with that kind of stuff before, yeah? Everyone does. And honestly, the rest of the week went fine. A few jabs here and there, but nothing I couldn’t handle. But…Friday night, I went over the Chris and PJ’s dorm. We did homework and stuff, hung out, until it got pretty late—around ten—so  I went to walk back here.

“Keep in mind, I didn’t exactly know my way around. I was walking through the courtyard to get here, just minding my own business, when I saw a group of people. I just tried to walk by, but…they saw me. Somebody ran after me and tripped me. They got a few kicks and punches in before I was able to escape. I came back here, and you…fixed me up, I guess? I dunno. So, today.” Phil paused again, recollecting his thoughts. “It started off well, but at lunch, Chris and Peej weren’t there. I was worried, you know? So I went to look for them. And then…I found them, with Richard and his stupid, _stupid_ ‘friends’ or whatever they are. They let me off as long as I promised to not tell anyone.” Suddenly, Phil’s eyes widened in realization. “Please, Dan. Don’t do anything to them. They’ll know it was me who told you.”

Dan wasn’t moving, just simply staring at Phil in shock. “Don’t _do anything_? Phil, how could I not do anything with what you just told me?” he asked, sadness in his voice.

“Just…please don’t.”

“I don’t know if I can do that.”

“Dan, _please_ ,” Phil begged.

Dan sighed. “Phil, I’ve got…I’ve got something to tell you, too.”

Phil stared at him, surprised.

“I…used to friends with Richard. Not good friends, provided, but friends nonetheless. He was always a bit violent, but…he never actually _did_ anything. I never thought he would. But he still did bully people. All the time. So, by association, I did, too. I never really liked it, but it made me feel…powerful. I had spent a lot of time with him, and I didn’t like it, but there were…pros. Like all the alcohol.” Dan blanched at his memories. “I got really into it, Phil. You have no idea. We’d all go to someone’s room, and I don’t know how they got it, but there were bottles and bottles. And I would drink like a maniac. I loved getting drunk. I spent very little time sober. Until I finally got some sense into me, and I knew I needed to stop.

“But I couldn’t with all those late-night excursions into people’s dorms, where it was everywhere. I knew that if I wanted to stop I had to stop going. It was _so hard_ , Phil. It was harder than you could ever imagine. Not relying on cheap liquor to get through the day was impossible at first.  A few of them…understood would be exaggerating…but Richard didn’t. I ended up…figuring out how to stop, but my ‘friendships’ with those people…some of them I honestly cared about…everything got torn apart,” Dan stopped talking there, and Phil didn’t know how to react.

Was Dan…tearing up? Oh god. He was. A single tear slipped own his cheek. Phil wiped it away with the pad of him thumb, unable to control his actions, it seemed.

“I’m sorry I just told you all of that, Phil. You didn’t need to hear all of that. I’ve just never told anyone.”

“Hey, it’s okay,” Phil whispered. Dan hid his head in the crook of Phil’s neck, and Phil rubbed his back gently. He couldn’t believe this was happening. It seemed so surreal. _Friends did this, right_?

“I’m sorry, Phil,” came Dan’s muffled, breaking voice.

“It’s okay, Dan. It’s okay. I don’t think any less of you.”

When Dan finally pulled his head away from Phil, his eyes were red and Phil’s shoulder felt kind of wet. Phil wrapped Dan in another hug. “It’s okay. You’re fine now,” he whispered into Dan’s ear.

Phil brought up both of their dinners that night. They ate them together on Phil’s bed, careful not to make a mess. Phil got Dan feeling a little better, but his nightmares were louder than ever. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry that this took so long to post; there was a massive snowstorm which caused a power outage that lasted three days. I hope you like this chapter, though!


	9. Chapter 9

Phil, Chris, and PJ made sure to get to English class on time the next day. There was no way that they were going to be late again and risk a detention. Today, all of them were focused on making through the day without attracting any attention from Richard or anyone that was ‘friends’ with him. But that would turn out to be harder than they thought.

Before entering the room, Phil took a deep breath and prepared himself to face Mr. Adams and Richard. He opened the door and walked in silently behind Chris and PJ, taking his seat on the back of the room. Lucky for Phil, no one cared as much as he had expected them to. Nobody seemed to even notice them, with people still streaming in steadily through the door. But when he had to sit in his seat near Richard in the back of the classroom, Phil held his breath. He sat silently, taking his books for English out of his backpack and fiddling with his pencil, looking straight ahead.

“Hey, Phil.”

Crap. It was Richard. Phil didn’t say anything.

“Hey, dickhead.”

Pencil-yellow was a really pretty color. Phil had never quite realized that. And pencils were very fun to play with. Like, you can bounce them on the desk. Isn’t that so cool? The color scheme of pencils were really neat, too. Whoever thought of making them yellow, pink, and green? None of those colors went together. How creative.

“What the fuck is wrong with you? Look at me.”

Phil’s pencil became more interesting than ever.

“Fag.”

“Shut up,” Phil said quietly.

Phil tried to ignore Richard, but it proved to be quite hard with his incessant rude comments. He felt something small pelt his head and realized it was a spitball when he reached up to get it off his head and heard some covered snickering from someone. Phil was almost thankful when the door slammed closed and Mr. Adams entered the room, signaling the start of class.

“We’ve got a lot to do today!” announced Mr. Adams loudly. “I glad that everyone got here _on time_ ,” he said pointedly, looking at Phil, Chris, and PJ in the back of the room before continuing with the lesson. Phil wasn’t really in the mood to enjoy class today, so he just sat there and tried to block out Rickard’s snide remarks at him.

Phil devoted the rest of his day to avoiding Richard, so he was glad to see Dan in fourth period biology. Dan and Phil had to pretend that they weren’t friends, but it was nice to know that they actually were. Dan smiled at him as he entered the room when no one was looking. And Phil left class pretty satisfied, as Lily stayed away from Dan.

Lunch was eventful with Chris and PJ there, talking about the quality of the cafeteria food.

“This is _not_ edible,” PJ said, poking at the food on his plate.

“Of course it is, or else they wouldn’t be serving it to us.”

“Well, it’s _not_.”

“Ish not bawd!” Chris said, taking a big bite.

“Ugh, no. I’m not kissing you if you eat that,” PJ joked.

“You’d kiss me if I’d just sucked your dick—oh wait—“

“ _CHRISTOPHER FUCKING KENDALL_!” PJ yelled, going bright red.

Chris grinned smugly, obviously proud of the reaction he had elicited from PJ, and Phil’s eyes widened in shock as he stifled laughter. A few people turned to stare at them because of PJ’s outburst.

“You little shit!” PJ exclaimed.

“Oops,” Chris said, still grinning.

“You’re…you know what?” PJ whispered something into Chris’ ear that made him blanch and shake his head.

“No way. You can’t do that! Plus, you wouldn’t even last three days,” Chris said.

“Oh, _I_ wouldn’t? What about you? You can’t keep your…body parts to yourself,” said PJ.

“You’re always—“

“ _I told you to stop talking about that stuff in public_ ,” PJ hissed.

“You  know what, it’s on,” Chris said, sticking his hand out and shaking PJ’s.

“Um, what’s on?” asked Phil, who had been perfectly content with just listening to PJ and Chris’ conversation.

“No sex for a week,” Chris explained, glaring at PJ.

“I told you to shut up!” PJ said loudly, whacking Chris with his backpack.

**

Chris and PJ had bid Phil good-bye on Friday looking regretful at leaving him, but their no-sex-for a-week competition was still on, and Phil was anxious to see what would happen after the weekend was done. Otherwise, the week had passed with Dan managing not to not do anything stupid. He left Richard and anyone associated with Richard alone, and for that Phil was thankful. Chris and PJ had started to warm up to Dan after seeing him so passionate about doing something to Richard, but Chris still seemed to feel bad about leaving Phil with Dan for the weekend. But honestly, Phil couldn’t have been happier. His and Dan’s relationship seemed to be getting better, what with each of them being able to trust each other with their secrets.

On Friday night, Dan and Phil spent hours talking to each other about in the dark from across the room since there was no school the next day, laying down in their beds before Phil drifted off to sleep first, Dan following suite.

Phil wasn’t surprised, really, when he was awoken. Dan had almost— _almost_ —made it through the night. His nightmares had seemed to have been getting a little better, but not much. But tonight was different. Instead of the usual slight whimpering, Dan had screamed a blood-curdling scream and bolted straight upright. Phil jumped out of his bed and ran over next to Dan’s.

“Dan! Dan, what happened?”

Dan simply sat there, shirtless, breathing heavily and wiping tears from his eyes. “I’m f-fine.”

“No you’re not, Dan.”

“I…am.” Dan tried breathing slower, shaking his head as if to rid it of bad thoughts.

“Stop pretending that you’re okay! I _know_ you’re not.”

“S-sorry,” Dan said through shaky breaths. 

“Oh, man.” Phil got into the bed next to Dan and wrapped his arms around him. Dan melted into the hug, thankful for comfort. He tucked his head into Phil’s neck, and Phil held him tight until was able to calm down. Phil felt so terrible for Dan. He still had no idea what bothered Dan so much that he had dreams about it every night, but it was something that he was sure Dan would tell him when he was ready. Dan’s shoulder’s started shaking, and Phil whispered “shh, shh,” into his tousled hair over and over until he stopped and his breathing evened. Dan finally pulled away, concealing his face from Phil.

“Sorry I’m so pathetic,” Dan said.

“Hey! No, you’re not. Why would you think that?”

“I wake myself up crying every night. I don’t think it can get much more pathetic than that.”

“Dan, I don’t know why you dream like this, or what it’s even about, but you have no control over it.”

Dan sniffled and nodded.

“D’you wanna go for a walk or something?” Phil checked the bedside clock. It was 5 AM. Nobody would see them.

Dan grunted and shrugged. “Sure.”

“Okay, well…let’s put on some clothes and we can go to the forest. Sound good?” Phil asked.

“Okay,” Dan agreed quietly. Phil slipped out of Dan’s bed and exchanged his PJs for a t-shirt and skinny jeans while Dan did the same. “Let’s go.”

**

The forest at this hour was unlike any other time of day. The stars and the moon were in the navy dawn sky, mostly obscured by clouds, but just barely gave off enough light to illuminate the trees and shrubbery with an ethereal, silvery glow. A little stream reflected the moon, looking like a shiny, new, fluorescent coin as it babbled softly over rocks. The forest was wet—it was always wet in England—so the steps that Dan and Phil took made squelching noises with each step, both glad that they weren’t wearing good shoes. An owl hooted in the distance, and a morning mist settled lazily over everything, making Phil’s face feel cool and refreshed. The air smelt of that unique, cleansed earth smell that nature always gave off after a long rainstorm. It made the earthy air smell sweeter and fresher, somehow. Phil was wide awake though he hadn’t been moments before.

Dan and Phil walked next to each other in silence, neither sure what to say, really, but both enjoying the early morning. No one in their right mind was awake yet, so both of them were appreciating the early serenity that comes with being able to enjoy the world before anyone else. Their hand brushed against each other’s as they hung limply by their sides, unsure of what to do with them. Neither of them was leading the other anywhere in particular as they sort of just wandered aimlessly deeper and deeper into the forest. They had originally followed Dan’s path, but kind of strayed off of it and went off deeper than they had gone before, semi-confident that they would be able to find their way back. But they weren’t particularly worried about that right now.

“Dan…do you know where we are?” asked Phil. They were far away from any kind of path that could be seen. Dan and Phil had stopped in the middle of a patch of light green ferns next to a mossy, downed tree which Phil decided to lean against on. Dan went over next to him.

“Nope,” was Dan’s answer.

They sat in silence for a moment. But in that silence, Phil thought he could hear running water. “Hey Dan, follow me.”

“Where?”

“Just c’mere.” Phil got up and started searching for the source of the sound. Suddenly, he heard a sharp cry from behind him, which was followed by a splash. Phil spun around to see that Dan had slid down a steep and slippery ledge and landed on his butt on riverbank. Phil’s eyes widened and he couldn’t contain his laughter at his disgruntled, muddy friend. Dan was pouting and smeared with mud all over him, and sat in the muddy riverside in now soaked skinny jeans, boxers, and sneakers. Phil carefully made his way down to Dan, laughing at Dan’s comically displeased expression.

“Oh my _god_! Are you okay?” Phil asked.

“Oh yeah, just fine. You know, I just abso-fucking-lutely _love_ being wet and muddy at six in the morning,” Dan retorted, taking Phil’s hand as he had offered it to help him up.

“Uh, do you want help?” Phil asked, not really sure what he could do.

“Um, yeah…I guess, hold my clothes?” Dan asked. “I’m gonna get all this mud off.” He stood up and made like he was going to take off his shirt.

“You’re gonna go swimming? It’s freezing!” Phil exclaimed.

“Well, I’m already wet. What difference does it make?”

Dan had a point, but Phil barely even had time to agree before Dan started stripping down in front of him. Phil couldn’t keep his eyes from wandering all over Dan as he peeled his sticking, wet shirt from his body and kicked his shoes onto the bank. “Phil, could you come put this somewhere where it won’t get dirty?” Dan asked, holding out his wet shirt.

“I don’t think that exists in a forest,” mumbled Phil, but he saw a rock big rock that looked rather dirt-less. As Phil reached to grab Dan’s shirt from him, Dan grabbed Phil’s hand and yanked him down, making him fall forward into the water. Phil was submerged for a moment before he arose from the river, spluttering, water dripping from his messed up fringe.

“Dan!” he yelled.

Dan laughed loudly.

“Jesus _Christ_! Now I’m all wet, too! Dan!” Phil gasped. Dan was doubled over laughing, amused at Phil’s indignant yelling and angry splashing around.

“Don’t laugh! I’m _soaking wet_ and freezing! _Dan!_ ” Phil whined.

Dan’s laughing was stopped abruptly with a splash from Phil that doused him with freezing river water.

“PHIL!” Dan screamed, pretending to be angry. “What the fu—AH!” Dan had gone to splash Phil but fell over when trudging through the water which was now knee-deep. Phil cracked up, but Dan managed to grab his ankle and pull him down into the water, too, where he fell on top of Dan. They scrambled away from each other before Dan launched himself on Phil and they splashed around, freezing and giggling. Phil was thoroughly enjoying himself besides the fact that he was in very wet skinny jeans and t-shirt and sneakers and couldn’t feel his toes or fingers.

“Okay, okay! Stop!” Phil yelled through his giggles. He was soaking wet and uncomfortable and decided that he needed to take off some clothes. He trudged over to the side of the bank, near the rock he had been planning to put Dan’s shirt on. Phil quickly kicked off his soggy shoes and pulled off the sodden t-shirt that stuck uncomfortably to his body, laying them all on the rock. With a shrug, he shimmied out of his jeans so that he was wearing only boxers. He laid his clothes on the rock, where the pink rising sun was able to shine on them.

Dan splashed up behind him, apparently deciding that stripping down was a good idea as he took off his shoes and peeled off his jeans, laying them next to Phil’s. Phil tried desperately not to ogle at Dan, as always, but now it was even worse (or better) because Dan’s boxers were skin-tight and fucking _hot._ Not to mention that them being wet almost made them see-through. Phil looked away from Dan awkwardly, trying not to get too _excited_ …he was wearing only wet skin-tight boxers, too, after all, so any problems would be very visible and very awkward.

Both boys were wearing nothing but wet boxer shorts in rising sun, and frankly, Phil was freezing. It was still pretty warm out, as summer hadn’t officially ended, but the morning, as Dan had stated earlier this morning, was as cold as fuck.

“Do you wanna dry off?” Phil asked Dan, sitting on the rock next to their clothes.

“I….Yeah, sure. I’m _freezing_.” Dan sat next to Phil.

Phil pushed their clothes aside to get closer to Dan so that body heat could warm them up. Dan snuggled into Phil’s chest and Phil almost gasped out loud in surprise.  

“Mmph, you’re so warm,” Dan mumbled.

“I don’t feel like it,” Phil joked.

“Well, you are.” Dan shifted his position so he could get more comfortable. The two of them were cuddled up on the rock as the rising sun slowly enveloped and warmed them. They sat still for a while until Phil realized that Dan had fallen asleep against him, breathing slowly and softly. He smiled gently and played with Dan’s hair absentmindedly until his stomach rumbled loudly. Dan jumped and opened his eyes and Phil jerked his hand away from Dan’s head and laughed, sticking his tongue out of the corner of his mouth.

“Did I fall asleep?” Dan asked, realising.

Phil grinned. “You might’ve, yeah.”

“Shit. Sorry,” said Dan, looking a little panicked.

“It’s fine. Kind of cute, actually,” Phil teased.

“Shut up.”

“Adorable,” Phil said, smirking.

“Shut your face.”

“How sweet.”

“Phil Lester, fucking stop moving your mouth.”

“That’s not what your mum said last night!” Phil joked, earning a slap from Dan.

“That doesn’t even make sense!” Dan exclaimed.

“Sure it does.”

“Just…shush,” Dan said, grinning a little at Phil.

Phil smiled back, but was then remembered how hungry he was. “Hey, is there any food in here? Anything edible? I’m kind of starving.”

“We’re in the middle of a forest, Phil. What do you think?”

Phil sighed dramatically. “Darn it.”

“We could go back to the school to get food if you want? I’m hungry, too.”

Phil considered this decision. “You know what, let’s. But only once our clothes have dried off.” He slid off the rock and Dan did, too, to let the sun dry their garments. The clothes were still a bit damp, but they would only warm up as the sun rose higher. Dan strode down towards the side of the river and stepped on some rocks that protruded from it until he was out in the middle.

“Dan, what—“

“Phil, c’mere!”

“What?”

“Just, come look!”

Phil made his way over to Dan carefully, jumping and toeing carefully to where Dan was.

“Phil, look at those fish!”

Phil couldn’t quite see what was so remarkable about some fish. “Yeah?”

“No, Phil, _look_.”

All Phil could see was the muddy brown of the bottom of the river and some bits of trees floating along beside the small school of fish.

“Fish?” Phil asked Dan, wondering if that was what was so neat.

“Yeah. Look at them! Isn’t that cool?”

“Uh, I guess.”

Dan sat down and stuck his feet in the water, which scared the fish away, but Phil watched as they slowly became accustomed to him and suddenly Dan was giggling. “They’re nibbling on my toes!”

Phil laughed. “No way, really?”

“Yeah. Put your feet in the water! This tickles so much!”

Phil did as he was told, and soon he felt little tickling squishy pokes at his feet. He smiled grandly. “Oh my gosh, you’re right!”

Dan smiled and nudged Phil with his shoulder. Phil was a little confused at the enormity of Dan’s affections towards him today, but decided to play it off to tiredness or something of the sort. Dan was totally straight. But Phil’s rumbling stomach brought him out of his thoughts.

“You are hungry, aren’t you?” said Dan.

Phil shrugged. “Yeah.”

“I wouldn’t mid some breakfast. Wanna go back up to the school with me to steal something from the cafeteria?” asked Dan.

“Let’s go,” said Phil, pulling his feet out of the water and helping Dan up. As they made their way back to land instead of rocks, Phil lost his balance on a patch of moss. His foot slipped from under him and he was about to fall, when Dan caught him. Phil nearly melted into his arms. How prince-like Dan was!

“You okay?” Dan asked, helping Phil back to his feet.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine, thanks.” Phil tried to play it off like he didn’t care that Dan had just been holding him. Nope, he didn’t care one bit. But Phil was more careful until he got to solid land and to their clothes.

“These really aren’t that dry yet,” Dan noticed, picking up his shirt and still slightly damp jeans. Phil examined his own clothes and realized the same thing. “Ah, well. We can be quick!” The two boys put on their uncomfortably semi-dry clothes and grabbed their shoes in their hands to walk back to the school, where they hoped no one would notice the state they were in. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this took long and I apologize in advance for the fact that it might take a bit for the next chapter to get out but I'm not going to give up on this story so don't worry about that!


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so so so sorry that it took me so long to update and I feel terrible so here is a mini chapter whilst I figure out what happens next

Chris shut the door to his bedroom when PJ followed him inside, sprawling down on Chris’ bed and looking up at the ceiling. Chris grinned and ran at PJ, jumping on top of him playfully.

“Chris!” PJ squealed.

Chris grinned and tickled PJ violently, which caused PJ to flail his arms and kick around, trying to escape Chris while laughing hysterically. PJ rolled over, but just as he thought he could escape, Chris pulled him in for a kiss. PJ melted into it, forgetting momentarily about the tickle fight. Chris slowly pushed PJ back onto the bed, kissing him deeply. Chris’ hands slowly slipped up PJ’s shirt, but before PJ could really enjoy it, Chris started tickling him again.

“You—motherfucker!” PJ managed out through gasps of laughter.

“More like a PJ-fucker,” Chris said smugly.

“Not this weekend,” PJ said, sitting up.

“Oh my god, were you serious?”

“Fuck yeah, I’m serious. I _told_ you to stop talking about us in public. Look where it got you,” PJ smiled, pleased with himself.

Chris was gaping. He had obviously been counting on some quality sex with PJ this weekend, as his parents weren’t around too much—even when he was home.  There was a reason that they were able to afford him going to a such an expensive private boarding school, and that reason was that they were workaholics.

“No _way_. We are going to do _something_ this weekend,” declared Chris.

“Nope. Nothing. Maybe this’ll teach you to listen to me.”

“I’ll listen to you if you’re telling me to fuck you,” Chris said, nudging PJ.

“Not this weekend,” PJ grinned.

“Fuck you!”

“You wish!”

With that comment, Chris couldn’t help but to pin PJ onto the bed and kiss him, PJ squirming a little bit until Chris moved his tongue into PJ’s mouth and he moaned quietly. It took a moment before PJ grinned and rolled off he bed, catching himself before he hit the floor. He sat up, laughing at Chris’ astonished face, his mouth open in shock and eyes as wide as quarters.

“You bitch!” Chris exclaimed, gaping at PJ and PJ struggled to sit up from laughing so hard.

“Your _face_!” PJ gasped between guffaws.

“Well, you fucking disappeared whilst I was kissing you! You would have been surprised, too.”

As PJ’s laughter died down, Chris stared at him grumpily until PJ climbed back onto the bed and sat next to him.

“You love me,” PJ smiled.

“You _wish_ ,” Chris said mockingly. PJ rolled his eyes.

“We can do stuff that’s _not_ sex, y’know,” said PJ.

“But what else are we supposed to do when we’re stuck in a house alone for a weekend?” Chris complained.

“What Dan and Phil do?” PJ said.

“What’s that supposed to mean? We’re supposed to sulk at each other?”

PJ smiled smugly. “No, probably just low-key make out sessions.”

Chris looked confused. “What?”

“Oh my gosh, have you _seen_ the two of them together?”

“Yeah, and they don’t seem to—“

“Chris, they’re totally in love.”

“I kind of doubt that. Like, a lot.”

“You shouldn’t.”

Later that day, PJ had managed to escape Chris’ advances several times, and no matter what, seemed to think that Dan and Phil were ‘together’ somehow. Chris thought that that made absolutely no sense. Dan and Phil? _Together_? He could not see that. But still…PJ seemed pretty convinced. And PJ was rarely wrong about these things. He had some freaky sixth sense that told him when people were meant to be; Chris was positive.

“..like, have you _seen_ the way Dan looks at Phil? He’s not straight. At least, not for Phil. And we already know that Phil’s gay. I’m like 300 percent sure they’ve done something together,” PJ was rambling.

“I still don’t really think they can even stand each other,” Chris said.

“Wait! Chris, I have an idea!”

“Pardon?”

“You don’t think they’re together, and I do, so let’s make a deal,” PJ started.

Chris stared.

“If either of us can get actual proof, from both of them, that they like each other or they don’t, they owe the other person ten pounds,” PJ decided.

“Are you being serious?”

“Absolutely.”

“I…alright, fine. It’s a deal,” Chris said, rather reluctantly.

They shook hands and Chris shook his head.

But PJ seemed determined that he was going to win. And so was Chris.


End file.
